Who's Cutting the World's Internet Cables? Russia, China, and the Fight for the Seabed

A huge portion of the internet runs through undersea cables on the deep seabed... and someone keeps cutting them. Here's what's actually happening in the Baltic, around Taiwan, and at the UN.

This video was originally posted on Tiktok February 2026

Topics covered:
-What undersea cables actually are and why 95% of global internet traffic runs through them
-The Baltic Sea sabotage incidents and Finnish police seizing the Eagle S
-Taiwan charging a China-linked ship captain with damaging a subsea cable
-NATO's Baltic Sentry operation to protect critical seabed infrastructure
-The "grey zone" problem: attacks below the threshold of war, in waters outside national control
-The new January 2026 UN cable governance push
-Why even Starlink and satellite internet ultimately depend on undersea cables
-How this connects back to The Metals Company permits and deep-sea mining in part 1

CHAPTERS
0:00 95% of the internet runs on cables anyone can cut
0:20 Who's actually doing the cutting — Russia, China, and the grey zone
0:45 Update on Part 1: The Metals Company applies for NOAA permits
1:05 Why the seabed is a single contested space
1:25 The new ocean treaty and what it actually covers
1:50 How dragged anchors became a weapon
2:15 Baltic Sentry, NATO, and the response
2:35 Why even satellite internet still depends on cables
2:50 What's coming next month

SOURCES
UN: Invisible Highways: The vast network of undersea cables powering our connectivity https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/02/1166867

BBC: Finnish police seize ship suspected of sabotaging undersea cable https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62040np372o

Atlantic Council: How the Blatic Sea nations have tackled suspicious cable cuts https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/how-the-baltic-sea-nations-have-tackled-suspicious-cable-cuts/

Al Jazeera: Taiwan charges captain of china-linked ship with damaging subsea cable https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/11/taiwan-charges-captain-of-china-linked-ship-with-damaging-subsea-cable

Economist: The Quest to Chart the Sea https://www.economist.com/interactive/international/2025/12/22/the-quest-to-chart-the-sea

NOAA: NOAA accelerates permitting timeline for deep seabed mining applications https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-accelerates-permitting-timeline-for-deep-seabed-mining-applications

The Metals Company: TMC USA Files first consolidated deep-seabed mining application https://investors.metals.co/news-releases/news-release-details/tmc-usa-files-first-consolidated-deep-seabed-mining-application
Wikipedia: International Seabed Authority
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Seabed_Authority

Economist: Half-Planet-Size gap in global governance is about to get plugged https://www.economist.com/international/2025/12/30/a-half-planet-size-gap-in-global-governance-is-about-to-get-plugged

NATO: NATO launches ‘Baltic Sentry’ to increase critical infrastructure security https://www.nato.int/en/news-and-events/articles/news/2025/01/14/nato-launches-baltic-sentry-to-increase-critical-infrastructure-security

Видео Who's Cutting the World's Internet Cables? Russia, China, and the Fight for the Seabed канала drewfornow