this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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Technology

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The offline messaging apps challenging internet shutdowns (restofworld.org)
submitted 1 day ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Governments that deploy internet shutdowns to thwart protesters have struggled to clamp down on offline messaging apps. India’s recent response to Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat suggests that battle is entering a new phase.

Bitchat, launched by the Twitter co-founder in 2025, allows nearby phones to communicate over Bluetooth even when mobile networks or internet access are unavailable. Last month, the app had its biggest real-world test after authorities shut down internet access during student protests in New Delhi.

As protesters turned to Bitchat, the Indian government tried to block access to the app’s source code on GitHub, a Microsoft-owned platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. In the past, the Indian government has blocked apps from official app stores due to various reasons, but digital rights advocates say this appears to be the first known attempt to geoblock an open-source software repository.

The episode highlights a growing challenge for governments.

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[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

How does Meshtastic relate?

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Meshtastic (and Meshcore) use LoRa radios so require extra hardware, but as a result have much longer range than Bluetooth.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

As someone that has used both for years:

  • meshtastic - great at imprompu connections. Camping, big events, ect. Like within 5 milesish.
  • meshcore - great at consistant communication with known nodes. Think your house, office, or established areas. Getting messages out of your local city is possible.

Its fun as a hobby.

!meshtastic@mander.xyz

[–] XLE@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I want to like it, but

  • the learning curve
  • the extra hardware requirements
  • the state of the software ecosystem
  • the (lack of) reliability in my experience
  • schisms with even choosing how to communicate

all make it feel to me like a project for comfortable hobbyists at hackathons, not a serious protest communication tool.

[–] i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

It would be nice if these mesh projects worked together. There are at least three major incompatible LoRa mesh ecosystems. I think only Reticulum has both LoRa and Bluetooth, but Reticulum is possibly the least mature, and it's even more obscure than Meshtastic. A few phones with Reticulum over LoRa could relay messages from Reticulum over Bluetooth phones over a longer distance, and potentially reach the internet from some distant location.

Columba looks like the app you'd want. I've never used it.