Could solar storms destroy the internet?

Yes — a severe solar storm could seriously disrupt the internet, and in an extreme case it could cause widespread, prolonged outages. But it would not literally “destroy” the internet everywhere at once.

The main risks are:

• Power-grid damage: Geomagnetically induced currents can overload transformers and trigger large-scale outages. Since internet service depends on electricity, that can knock out networks, data centers, and routing equipment.
• Satellite disruption: Solar storms can affect satellite electronics, radio communications, and GPS, and can also increase atmospheric drag on low-Earth-orbit satellites.
• Undersea cable impacts: The fiber itself is not the main weak point, but submarine cables include powered repeater equipment and long conductive elements that can be affected by strong geomagnetic disturbances.

So the realistic concern is major regional or multi-region internet outages, especially if they happen alongside grid failures and satellite disruptions. In the worst-case extreme, outages could last weeks or longer in some places, but how severe that would be depends on the storm and on the resilience of the affected infrastructure.

A solar storm is not usually described as an “internet apocalypse,” but it is a real risk for serious communications and power disruption.