Hur lyckas demonstranterna i Hong Kong kommunicera fritt och under radarn när staten har koll på SMS, e-post, WeChat med flera kommunikationskanaler? Svaret är peer-to-peer mesh broadcasting networks.
Man använder den brittiska appen Brirdgefy – som låter användare koppla upp ett mesh-nätverk via Bluetooth. Detta kräver en viss täthet mellan användarna, men i samband med Hong Kong-protesterna är det inget problem.
Forbes har talat med Bridgefys medgrundare och CEO Jorge Rios:
»Bridgefy is a messaging app that works with or without Internet. It’s based on Bluetooth instead, and we built it because we know that the lack of communication can be vital in many places and situations. Most people download it before going to a large music of sporting event, but we’re currently having huge spikes in downloads from Hong Kong due to the protests.«
»We’ve seen more than 60,000 app installations in just the past seven days, most of them from Hong Kong. People are using it to organize themselves and to stay safe, without having to depend on an Internet connection.«
Men appen är inte bara användbar vid oppositionella politiska protester:
»Whenever there’s a hurricane or earthquake in the world, we see spikes in app downloads. It’s important for us to say that our core technology is also available to developers, so that they may integrate it into their own apps and make them work offline. We license it based on the amount of offline users, and are currently working so that some day we might be able to use apps like WeChat, Tinder, Uber, and Whatsapp without Internet.«
Det är så att man undrar varför denna lösning inte varit tillgänglig på konsumentmarknaden tidigare. Mesh-nätverk i olika former är ju inget nytt.
Det hela påminner lite om finansmannens Jan Stenbecks ord när han lanserade TV3. Politik slår pengar. Teknik slår politik.
Länk: Hong Kong Protestors Using Mesh Messaging App China Can’t Block: Usage Up 3685% »