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Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

briarproject.org

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Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#351

Post by jfengel »

andix wrote: post #332
jfengel wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is concern that the US may also go from chronic concerns to acute ones. Opponents of the government accuse it of serious crimes, and are already perceiving violence used to suppress dissent. The administration is not popular and may lose a lot of power in the upcoming election. It's hard to imagine that shutting down the entire Internet would be taken well even by their supporters, but the point of the exercise…

> It's hard to imagine that shutting down the entire Internet would be taken well even by their supporters Do you really think an authoritarian government cares about what people think? If there is a majority that supports them? They don't.

The current government can still claim to have a democratic mandate. At least for the moment, it relies on the goodwill (even of its opponents) to at least pretend that elections matter.

If it loses a large number of supporters, and is forced to suspend even the illusion of democracy, a lot of things would change. It's hard to predict exactly what, but it would be ugly.

That's not to say that they won't. As you observe, they will do what they think they can get away with. But shutting down the entire Internet might be something that they can't get away with.

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#352

Post by einpoklum »

It's important for mobile apps to be available outside of Google and Apple's app store, so kudos to briar for being on F-Droid as well: https://f-droid.org/ .

In fact, (smartphone) software distribution over ad-hoc networks is itself of some importance.

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#353

Post by 93po »

fahhem wrote: post #346
yubblegum wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Governments usually switch off the internet when they have a risk of being overthrown. Thats' why it's happening in Iran. They want to disrupt the co-ordination of a coup You are, possibly innocently, carrying propaganda water for a repressive autocratic regime that has killed thousands of its own citizens in the past week alone. IRI desposts, starting fro Ali Khamenei down to the rest of their ideological "brother…

Bro, relax, this rhetoric and your claims are so extreme and not backed up by reality. Killed thousands? According to the "Human Rights Activists" in London? Or the ones in Washington? Because none of that has actually come from Iran, and the few videos that have come out show people hit by hunting rifles (aka, non-police weapons) or shot in the back by other "protestors". We know Mossad has armed the rioters, nobody…

dude literally just go search "Tehran hospital" on twitter, there's hundreds of videos and images of endless body bags, and multiple independent major media outlets all reporting casualties in the thousands, not just Iran International

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#354

Post by ajb »

yubblegum wrote: post #345
ajb wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the right threat model, though? Governments usually switch off the internet when they have a risk of being overthrown. Thats' why it's happening in Iran. They want to disrupt the co-ordination of a coup, and their opponents only need to win in the short term after which it doesn't matter. In the US, the threat is censorship and tracking- suppression over the long term. Mesh networks are not great for that,bec…

> Governments usually switch off the internet when they have a risk of being overthrown. Thats' why it's happening in Iran. They want to disrupt the co-ordination of a coup You are, possibly innocently, carrying propaganda water for a repressive autocratic regime that has killed thousands of its own citizens in the past week alone. IRI desposts, starting fro Ali Khamenei down to the rest of their ideological "brother…

My message was in no way intended to comment on the legitimacy of either the government of Iran or of its potential overthrow. There are circumstances in which the overthrow of a government is justified.

You may be passionately in favour of one side, but hastily imputing motives to, and disparaging, people who you do not know, will not aid in convincing anyone of your claims; it merely undermines your credibility.

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#355

Post by ajb »

agnishom wrote: post #264
ajb wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the right threat model, though? Governments usually switch off the internet when they have a risk of being overthrown. Thats' why it's happening in Iran. They want to disrupt the co-ordination of a coup, and their opponents only need to win in the short term after which it doesn't matter. In the US, the threat is censorship and tracking- suppression over the long term. Mesh networks are not great for that,bec…

You raise a good point, and I think USians should do all of it: generally encrypt communication, try to conceal as much metadata as they can AND put up mesh networks. It is not the right threat model until it is. That said, I never said that my comment was about the US.

Ah, I did assume your were talking about the US; my apologies. My comment applies to the US, and perhaps other countries with the potential to enter a similar situation.

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#356

Post by 3D30497420 »

reaperducer wrote: post #343
3D30497420 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built a basic LoRa network so I could send data from my washing machine in the apartment cellar to my Home Assistant box in my apartment several floors up. It very much did occur to me that the technologies/skills I was learning would also be useful to create a decentralized mesh network for general communication.

I built a basic LoRa network so I could send data from my washing machine in the apartment cellar to my Home Assistant box in my apartment several floors up. I have sensors in eight of my plants that use LoRa to transmit moisture levels to an SBC running Forth that lights up a single segment in an LED bar to let me know which ones should be watered. I like to think the electricity has made the plants super-intelligen…

Love it.

> I like to think the electricity has made the plants super-intelligent and now they talk to each over over LoRa and plot against the cat.

This should be the next Pixar film.

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#357

Post by fahhem »

93po wrote: post #353
fahhem wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bro, relax, this rhetoric and your claims are so extreme and not backed up by reality. Killed thousands? According to the "Human Rights Activists" in London? Or the ones in Washington? Because none of that has actually come from Iran, and the few videos that have come out show people hit by hunting rifles (aka, non-police weapons) or shot in the back by other "protestors". We know Mossad has armed the rioters, nobody…

dude literally just go search "Tehran hospital" on twitter, there's hundreds of videos and images of endless body bags, and multiple independent major media outlets all reporting casualties in the thousands, not just Iran International

The notoriously reliable source of (mis)information Twitter. I see lots of videos, including people talking about rioters, foreign-backed militias, and lots of inflammatory words, but no pictures or videos of thousands of bodies. I feel for the dead, especially those shot in the back to instigate foreign intervention, they didn't deserve to be harmed. But I lay the blame on their murderers and their backers and funders.

Re: Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

#358

Post by mrguyorama »

killingtime74 wrote: post #110
btbuildem wrote: post #96

Take heed, Americaneez -- and prepare, because this may be in your future sooner than prediction markets would have you believe [1]. LoRa mesh networking seems like the runner-up, but vague reports indicate (Meshtastic) doesn't handle crowds well. I think Bitchat can use Meshtastic, so a LoRa radio paired with a phone could be a base for not just texting individuals, but community messaging. 1: https://polymarket.com…

If there is really a civil war, won't these frequencies just get jammed?

Any actual adversarial situation is a constant back and forth of "This works, whoops now it's countered, well now we countered that" forever.

Things don't stand still in "war". There's no "Solution" that will not be attacked, and there's no attack that cannot be worked around.

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