Weary of uprisings enhanced by social media, many autocratic regimes are cracking down on internet sites and mobile apps. Russian, China, Iran, Syria and others have banned or restricted Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, a lack of internet and major websites has not stopped social media and free communication advocates from sparking or supporting mass protests.
During the height of the 2011 Egyptian protests, Egypt banned Twitter and many other websites. In response, Google purchased a start-up called SayNow and partnered with Twitter to release a new service. This new service allowed users to post on Twitter by leaving a special phone number voicemails or sending the number text messages. Other users could listen to the posted messages by calling a different phone number.
This past weekend, a new offline service called FireChat was downloaded over 100,000 times per day. The app uses smartphone's bluetooth (radio-like) connection to connect to other phones within 70 meters. Those phones in turn connect to other phones another 70 meters away. This can create large decentralized "mesh" chat networks that are completely offline and almost impossible to track, record, or shut down. Currently, FireChat is mostly being used by Hong Kong students protesting China's inability to let Hong Kong have open democratic elections. However, the app is also gaining popularity in places like Iran and Iraq. China has not banned websites in Hong Kong, but the fear that they might has driven the success of FireChat.
Cheers to the founders of Firechat whose previous accomplishments include managing 20% of web congestion and launching SkypeIn, SkyeOut, and uTorrent (250 million+ users). Their simple completely offline chat application developed by a few people and used by only a few million people may be their most important invention to date.
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