Sharks Are Eating The Internet And Causing Major Connection Problems In Vietnam
As if sharks didn't have a bad enough rep already, they're now trying to destroy the internet in Vietnam. The Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable system that supplies most of Vietnam and crosses the Pacific Ocean from the US has ruptured, and the cause of this rupture is thought to be sharks.
The 20,000km AAG cable system was fixed three times last year but is now experiencing more problems. Because it's used by local Vietnamese internet providers the rupture is causing millions of people to experience a crappy internet connection.
From The Stack:
Vietnam’s branch of the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable system has today suffered the latest in a series of physical ruptures that have plagued the country over the last year. AAG report that the breakage occurred in the S1H section of the cable, not far from the shores of Ba Ria at the coastal city of Vung Tau.
The connection is one of only five pipes serving a country of 93 million people, and is the network entry point for local providers VNPT, Viettel, SPT and FPT Telecom. The branch of AAG leading to Vietnam is a blind spoke, so neighbouring regions and countries are unaffected. Other recent breakages in the 12,000 mile (20,000 km) trans-Pacific cable have been responsible for similar network blackouts or slow-downs in Asian locations including Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore and Thailand, as well as Vietnam, in one case requiring 20 days to repair.
Many theories were proposed as to what could be causing the breakages. But footage of sharks biting down on underwater cables—which you can see in the video above from August last year—shows that it's most likely sharks that are sabotaging the internet for the people of Southeast Asia.
It's thought that the sharks might be mistaking the electromagnetic field that is generated by the cables for bioelectricity emitted by schools of fish.
Or maybe the sharks just don't like the way they're portrayed on the internet—especially that meme that gave them human teeth—and now they're exacting their revenge.
