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Hong Kong Protesters Use Mesh Networks To Organize
wabrandsma sends this article from New Scientist:
Hong Kong's mass protest is networked. Activists are relying on a free app that can send messages without any cellphone connection. Since the pro-democracy protests turned ugly over the weekend, many worry that the Chinese government would block local phone networks. In response, activists have turned to the FireChat app to send supportive messages and share the latest news. On Sunday alone, the app was downloaded more than 100,000 times in Hong Kong, its developers said. FireChat relies on "mesh networking," a technique that allows data to zip directly from one phone to another via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Ordinarily, if two people want to communicate this way, they need to be fairly close together. But as more people join in, the network grows and messages can travel further. Mesh networks can be useful for people who are caught in natural disasters or, like those in Hong Kong, protesting under tricky conditions. FireChat came in handy for protesters in Taiwan and Iraq this year."
but the ad-hoc nature of it makes it incredibly handy.. i'm not sure if "security" it paramount when you are literally in the shit.. if you're being shot at by the government, who the fuck cares about your texts are in the clear? the point of this thing is to spread the word, quickly... encryption would HINDER info being shared.
I wonder how much information one mesh node could accumulate to incriminate other participants? How many of "the people" will be willing to participate in an uprising like this if they know that a government stooge is likely no more than two or three hops away?
You do realize that most of these protesters are literally standing two or three steps away from a government stooge wearing riot gear, right? It's not like they're even trying to blend in.
I think we're forgetting our history here. Peaceful protest only works if it seriously inconveniences as many people as possible for as long as necessary. Politely camping in a park without a permit doesn't really cut it. If they're using tear gas on you, it's a start. If they're using water cannon on you, you're getting somewhere. If they're setting dogs on you and hauling you away to county lockup by the busload, you're doing it right.
People forget exactly what happened during the Civil Rights movement in the United States. It's peaceful protest only on the protester's side. On the side of the so-called civil authorities, it's decidedly not peaceful, and rarely civil. And this has to go on for quite a long time. Literally years.
Occupy Wall Street accomplished nothing because none of that happened. These protests in Hong Kong will likely accomplish just as little. They're carefully avoiding inconveniencing anyone. Nothing happens if you do that. We demonstrated exactly that in the US. Hong Kong should learn from our mistakes. If they want to actually change things, they have to get obnoxious and get hauled away by those riot gear-equipped policemen. In droves. By the thousands. Or since we're talking about Chinese numbers here, by the tens of thousands. (It takes some serious effort to match per capita numbers in China.) Being careful not to interfere means you can be ignored, not just by authority, but by the man on the street as well. You must inconvenience people. You must interfere. You must do so as peacefully as possible, but you must do so.
Most recently, the US did it wrong. We in the US weren't willing to pay the price to get the oligarchs to back down. The populations of several Arab states did it right. Yeah, it hurts. Sorry, but that's what it takes. Are you in China ready?
This is easy to defeat with a simple 2.4ghz jammer in the protest area. Both Bluetooth and most WiFi would be disabled. So the devices cannot mesh. Turn off the cell networks and ability of protesters to coordinate is gone.
So it could be useful when Government is not the adversary such as in a disaster, but is easily disabled by Government if that is it's intention during protests.
Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
These protests in Hong Kong will likely accomplish just as little. They're carefully avoiding inconveniencing anyone.
As said by a true outsider. You're obviously not in Hong Kong.
Some 200 bus routes affected: cut short or completely out of service. MTR services (which have to take over all those bus passengers) become overloaded - there's already barely any spare capacity left. Many people have problems going to work, or just to travel around town. For tourists it's even worse, some major hotels like the Mandarin Oriental and the Grand Hyatt being in the middle of the protest zones. Well over 100 schools and kindergartens have been closed for a few days already due to the blockades, with students and teachers not being able to get to the schools. Dozens of shops, restaurants and banks had to close (losing income), ATMs running out of money as delivery vans can't get there.
There is effectively NO traffic possible in Mongkok, Central, Admiralty and parts of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay. Roads affected include Argyle Street and Nathan Road, two main arteries of Kowloon, and Connaught Road Central in Hong Kong, a key artery connecting all the main business districts there.
It's China National Day today. The fireworks display in Victoria Harbour has been cancelled (that was announced yesterday), this usually attracts hundreds of thousands of people. The official flag raising ceremony this morning, one of the main parts of the official celebrations, lasted less than 10 minutes, with a bunch of protesters in the crowd turning their backs to the flags while they were being raised. Honestly I don't know how those officials actually managed to get to Golden Bauhinia Square, but wouldn't be surprised if helicopters were used (there happens to be a heliport right next to it). It'd be really hard for them to drive there as they usually would do.
And you say they're not inconveniencing anyone?
All they are really careful about is to not give the government any excuse to go after them. The grass around the cenotaph on Chater Garden was kept completely free, no-one set foot on it. There's only a 20-cm tall wire fence around it, and signs saying to stay off the grass. The protesters regularly collect garbage, leaving no trash behind. A police van got stuck in the middle of the Mongkok protest zone, recovered by police a day later - completely unharmed. Some bus drivers even donated "their" buses to help block off roads, confident the vehicles will not be damaged.