When people are disconnected from the internet, it can impact everything — access to essential info, how they receive medical care, or communication with loved ones. Whether it’s from the government or natural disasters, you can prep in advance to limit the impact of such shutdowns. 🧵 (1/9)
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@eff - remind me again why the loss of a majority of those things would be a hardship.
For the most part, it might even increase mental health.
@eff It’s time for community networks to be built. Networks that are owned and operated by volunteers in the community are much more difficult to be subjected to government surveillance. I would like to help build one in my community.
To keep people connected during internet shutdowns & blackouts, communication networks must be operational before and after the disaster or shutdown. To be effective, they must be widespread so that people can get access to them reliably, and they must be usable by a majority of the community. (2/9)
Radios: Cheap, decentralized, and resilient. Meshtastic is a way to use a common unlicensed radio spectrum and a technology called LoRA to have peer-to-peer decentralized communications with people in your neighborhood or city. (3/9)
@eff It's worth noting that some areas have standardised on MeshCore, rather than Meshtastic. E.g. Cascadia, where MeshCore's routing in particular seems to work better, possibly due to our complex topography:
See meshcore.io for firmware and a short go-to device list.
Peer-to-peer messaging apps: Briar uses Bluetooth to route messages from device to device, even when there is no internet. Other options include bitchat and Delta Chat, both of which have been used with success in Iran during the latest shutdown. (4/9)
Satellite internet: Without wires, this is harder for governments to shut down unilaterally. Unfortunately when the satellites are owned by tech oligarchs, such as Starlink (owned by Elon Musk), or by allied governments, the owners of those satellites may willingly shut down the network anyway.(5/9)
