UAE authority denies rumours of 'global Internet disruption' on October 11

Authorities in the UAE have denied reports about a “possible worldwide Internet service interruption” on October 11. The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) called recent reports incorrect.

“We strongly encourage everyone to rely solely on our official channels for accurate information to avoid unnecessary worry,” the authority posted on platform X.

There are multiple reports pointing to the purported widespread outage of Internet services.

A video going viral on social media shows a news presenter apparently stating that Internet services would be cut off for a “limited period of time”. The video then cuts to a popular news segment on a news channel, which discusses the so-called disruption.

However, according to Arabic media reports, the video is manipulated. The original episode of the segment, which aired in 2018, showed news presenters discussing some other issue. The video going viral has the visuals blurred, with audio about the Internet disruption added to it.

Other ‘reports’ going viral on social media attributed the purported October 11 outage to a 'solar storm'.