⚡Tasin 🚀Jun 19, 2025
Franklin López

Yo, real talk—what the fuck are we gonna do when the internet gets shut off?

We've seen it in #Gaza, in #Iran, and when Elon “I-play-God” Musk blacked out Starlink in Ukraine. Every time shit gets heavy, the state or some oligarch clown just pulls the plug. It ain’t just a glitch—it’s strategic, it’s repression, and it’s a fucking reminder that most of our comms infrastructure is in the hands of fascists, corporations, or both.

I’ve been working with indigenous comrades who rely on #Starlink to stay connected in remote areas. And yeah, it’s wild that you can be deep in the bush and still shitpost from a mountaintop—but that signal still runs through a pipeline owned by a Nazi tech bro.

We need to be talking more about mesh networks, autonomous infrastructure, all that good shit that anarchist tech nerds have been yelling about for years. Decentralized, resilient, community-controlled comms aren’t just cool—they’re necessary for survival.

Let’s keep this convo alive and start building the lifelines before the next blackout. Shit’s coming fast.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/activists-are-designing-mesh-networks-to-deploy-during-civil-unrest/

Activists are Designing Mesh Networks to Deploy During Civil Unrest

The Mycelium Mesh Project is testing DIY networks that can be quickly deployed on trees or lamp posts during a political uprising.

VICE
Jun 18, 2025 at 5:07pmWeb
Show threadFranklin LópezJun 18, 2025

Damn I came to the right place for tech nerdery! I should mix my hip-hop recommendations requests with tech help questions! LOL! Thx geeks!

#DorkWeb

Show threadmischief brewerJun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez 2 words: packet radio
Show threadFranklin LópezJun 18, 2025
@mbrewer Tell me more!
Show threadmischief brewerJun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez it is some protocols for sending data (usually text or images) digitally over radio at great distances (greater than mesh networks, which are very cool in their own right). It can kind of replace the internet, to some extent, and is much harder for authorities to shut off.
Show threadmischief brewerJun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez I mean, I guess mesh networks use packet radio, broadly speaking. But I have run into the term used in, for instance, high-frequency contexts. When you pair packet radio with some modest HF transmitters you can reach across continents.
Show threadIt's Going DownJun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez @mbrewer Check out @anarchistrrl they have been posting some stuff about this. Also @tom_nomad has some thoughts on tech stuff in this vein.
Show threadMarcoJun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez hamwan.org
Show threadjmcnaughtonJun 18, 2025

@franklinlopez

https://wiki.reseaulibre.ca/

Réseau Libre

Show threadSusanna the Artist 🌻Jun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez that’s why I bought @loriemerson ‘s book, to get ideas! https://shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898-lori-emerson-other-networks-a-radical-technology-sourcebook
Lori Emerson - Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook. Mexican Summer & Anthology.

Buy Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook by Lori Emerson on Mexican Summer & Anthology.

Mexican Summer & Anthology
Show threadMichael BuschJun 18, 2025

@franklinlopez

I am reminded of @vaurora 's description of an Internet Resiliency Club - https://bowshock.nl/irc/

Start your own Internet Resiliency Club – Bow Shock Systems Consulting

Show threadSusanna the Artist 🌻Jun 18, 2025
@michael_w_busch @franklinlopez @vaurora Good information. During hurricane Helene last year, we were really cut off for a while. That’s what started me thinking about alternative ways to access the internet when infrastructure is damaged or captured.
Show threadMichael BuschJun 18, 2025

@superflippy @franklinlopez @vaurora

After Maria, the first information out of part of Puerto Rico was from a ham radio operator I know rolling out his gear.

But "be set up to do moonbounce" is not a readily scalable solution.

Show threadAphrodite (recharging)Jun 18, 2025

@michael_w_busch @superflippy @franklinlopez @vaurora

Hams are emergency communications people.

It’s why in NA ham plates are offered. Heck, Oregon offers hams the ability to get plates that’s are “utility orange,” the same as other emergency vehicles.

Show threadSander van der WaalJun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez also this has been making the rounds: https://bowshock.nl/irc/
Start your own Internet Resiliency Club – Bow Shock Systems Consulting

Show threadTheresa (she, her)Jun 18, 2025
@franklinlopez my #MutualAid group is starting with #HamRadio and #Meshtastic and connecting with folks building these networks regionally and beyond.
Show threadZimmieJun 19, 2025

@theresa @franklinlopez Note that amateur radio and LoRA mesh networks fill very different roles.

Amateur radio allows communicating at much greater ranges, and doesn’t necessarily depend on any infrastructure between the two parties talking, and simple FM radios are super cheap. The downside is it’s not great at transfer of digital signals.

LoRA like Meshtastic is good for local-community-level stuff. It can provide a reliable, inexpensive way for people within a neighborhood to talk during a telecom outage. Range is limited, though.

Show threadTheresa (she, her)Jun 19, 2025
@bob_zim @franklinlopez Yes! That's why we're doing both. More options for more situations. :)
Show threadZimmieJun 19, 2025
@theresa @franklinlopez I figured. Just wanted to explain for people who are unfamiliar with them why it may make sense to set up two different systems which, at a glance, seem to have a lot of overlap.
Show threademeJun 18, 2025

@franklinlopez There's also Secure scuttlebutt where the data can move around with people on USB drives or via BLuetooth instead of through physical infrastructure.

https://scuttlebot.io/more/protocols/secure-scuttlebutt.html

Secure Scuttlebutt - Scuttlebot

Show threadRonnieJun 19, 2025

@eme

@franklinlopez

How does that compare to services like Briar?

Show threadDusk to Don Jun 18, 2025

@franklinlopez

Thanks for the share + conversation.

I just sent this article to my friend (who knows more about this stuff than I do, has worked in the field of rural LOS ISPs)

"Start your own Internet Resiliency Club"
https://bowshock.nl/irc/

(and here's the associated #hackerNews discussion)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44287395

and this was his response:

❝That's similar to what I tried to start after #Helene, but it didn't go anywhere, it requires both funding and buy-in from land owners, both of which are tough to get.

Lora is pretty cool, but also requires a technical lift that's beyond most people. Great for open desert spaces, not so great for our mountains/rain forest.

Ultimately Starlink is the best option we have around here, which obviously isn't great if it becomes a tool of fascist censorship.

I do support these types of projects, but realistically they are just hard to get off the ground.

Ham radio is more realistic for a lot of people, as you can just buy an off the shelf radio (that behaves like a walkie talkie) without understanding how it works.❞

Start your own Internet Resiliency Club – Bow Shock Systems Consulting

Show threadCassandrichJun 18, 2025

@franklinlopez The degree to which modern commerce depends on the internet partly shields us from this. They can't actually take down *the internet* without giving us the equivalent of a general strike.

They can try to break access to particular communication platforms built on top of the internet. Diversity of channels, redundancy, and routing around censorship become key here.

Parallel infrastructure outside the current internet, and not controlled by the oligarchs, is also great and something we absolutely should be doing, but it's not deployed enough yet to meet needs on the short term we're looking at. Ultimately it needs to happen at scale where it replaces the need for a capitalist-infrastructure internet.

Show threadFranklin LópezJun 18, 2025
@dalias That's a really good point! But yeah, controlled blackouts were the resistance is popping off is my immediate concern
Show threadCassandrichJun 18, 2025

@franklinlopez To give some concrete examples. Without the internet:

- Nobody can pay with cards or Apple Pay or anything, only cash.
- Some point-of-sale systems might not work even with cash.
- Workers cannot clock in or out.
- Workers cannot see their assigned shift schedules, contact their managers, etc.
- Entry and exit systems for parking facilities likely don't work.
- Highway toll collection & license plate reading likely don't work.
- Businesses phone lines (VoIP) may not work.
- Road navigation systems don't work, and nobody knows how to use maps or knows the roads without assistance anymore.
- At least part of the communications and information sharing systems used by law enforcement don't work.

Etc. etc. etc.

Show threadJanetJun 18, 2025
@dalias Thank you for putting it so clearly. I hadn't thought about it from the oligarch's perspective of just how much they need it and how few outs they could get realistically.

That doesn't make it a non-issue in a complete fascist state, but it does mean that like you said they will keep it to targeting specific centralized platforms/operations lest they upset the capital holders.
Show threadCassandrichJun 18, 2025
@janelith Getting the internet so deeply ingrained in the substrate of modern capitalist society was one of the greatest achievements of our people in regards to securing a world where people can freely communicate and access information. It's so underappreciated.
Show threadHaelwenn /элвэн/ Jun 18, 2025
@dalias @franklinlopez In fact we can see what kind of stuff wouldn't work thanks to Crowdstrike.

I think current states can't shutdown the internet without also shutting themselves down.
Show threadrakooJun 19, 2025
@dalias

That's why it's not *the internet* that will be blocked, but *some services*:
- Social networks, as has already been demonstrated in great democracies like France
- Messengers
- Youtube

Those are already enough for massively disrupting the flow of non-state-compliant communication.

There's been a big surge of independent internet providers in France, they're doing a good job at maintaining that a commons. But our collective *use* of the internet is still too easily disruptable by a State
@franklinlopez
Show threadLightning Bjornsson*  Nov 30

@dalias @franklinlopez There are still workarounds in most of that, but the impact is, as you rightly raise, fairly severe.

  • Cash still manaģable,
  • I imagine users of those would invent contingency plans on the fly
  • True; again, I imagine a contingency would be invented (like pencilling in the reading on a wall clock to a paper table; this assumes local networks still work and are still usable for printing time sheets)
  • This would be a serious problem, and I imagine many absences would be excused in such a time
  • The security firms may be directed to open the exits to allow people to leave
  • Depending on the highway firm’s priorities, they may declare a toll-free period or they may manually collect tolls
  • In 2025 there’s no real workaround to a VoIP outage or inability for one VoIP exchange to reach another
  • I’m 25, I don’t tend to think that I’m too strange, and I know very well how to navigate without a map. I have to, because most of my road use is by bike, and I can’t exactly have my laptop hanging off my arm on my bike, and when I’m in my car, the same stricture applies. The road to work and back, if I had a job, would be one of those memorized routes. I suspect a lot of people would be similar.

    • In countries where internet outages are more common, firms likely already have contingencies.

    #lang_en

    Show threadLisPiJun 18, 2025
    @dalias @franklinlopez Delay-tolerant communications are also pretty important.

    Low-latency communications tend to rely on much costlier infrastructure or alternatively only operate on a very local scale.

    Most meshnets here that I know of do not exist outside of a few major cities (but even if they existed in all cities, inter-city routing remains a problem, there most frequently isn't a line-of-sight to usable radio repeaters). Routing to the outside world is further questionable as it tends to rely on easily cut-off internet access.

    NNCP /would/ be usable to communicate with services on such meshnets though, as the use of snailmail or sneakernet (or phone modems) between the cities is a supported option.

    > Imagine waking up and checking your phone after several evenings of mass demonstrations. You try scrolling through your Twitter feed, but it won’t load. You turn your router off and on to no avail. You try texting a friend to complain, but the message fails to send. Frustrated, you walk outside. People scattered along the sidewalk look as disoriented and confused as you feel

    traceroute is love, traceroute is life
    Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)Jun 19, 2025
    @lispi314 @dalias @franklinlopez I'd really like to see the #Fediverse developed to have more offline capability. It shouldn't be difficult at all (for end users, at least).
    Show threadLisPiJun 19, 2025
    @tokyo_0 @franklinlopez @dalias The main issue with the current Fediverse as far as that goes is that ActivityPub has mistakenly included a lot of HTTP-specific elements in its protocol design, including low-latency query-response.

    The ActivityPub specification would need updating to permit it.
    Show threadDe_MinimisJun 18, 2025
    @franklinlopez While reading your post I was going to mention Mesh. Glad you said it.
    Show threadzipkid - Breaker of SystemsJun 18, 2025
    @franklinlopez
    How about https://mstdn.social/@vaurora/114683846621987653
    Valerie Aurora 🇺🇦 (@[email protected])

    You are invited to join my new mailing list for people interested in internet resiliency clubs: https://lists.bowshock.nl/mailman/listinfo/irc I also updated the internet resiliency club HOWTO with some more hardware info and links to talks: https://bowshock.nl/irc/ Suggestions and corrections welcome! #internet #resilience #digital #independence

    Mastodon 🐘
    Show threadCats Who Resist!Jun 18, 2025
    @franklinlopez I love mesh networks 😉 haven't used one for a bit. It's about time.
    Show threadFish Id Wardrobe ⁂Jun 18, 2025

    @franklinlopez I quite like the idea of, eg., Briar. But there's no-one nearby that wants to play.

    https://briarproject.org/

    Secure messaging, anywhere - Briar

    Secure messaging, anywhere

    Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)Jun 19, 2025
    @fishidwardrobe @franklinlopez This was the first thing I thought of, but yeah no one wants this to be developed. After all, how can it be monetized? 🤪🤪🤪
    Show threadFish Id Wardrobe ⁂Jun 19, 2025
    @tokyo_0 @franklinlopez welcome to open source, where we develop things that can't be monetized all the time, and some of them end up as infrastructure.
    Show threadDjab MaroonJun 18, 2025

    @franklinlopez

    https://kolektiva.social/@MTL_ATC

    You should follow those guys!

    https://mtl-atc.org/

    AnarchistTechCon (@[email protected])

    49 Posts, 1 Following, 247 Followers · An Anarchist Tech Convergence in Montreal, Quebec / Tiohtià:ke October 11th and 12th, 2025

    kolektiva.social
    Show threadAnarchist Radio Relay LeagueJun 18, 2025

    @franklinlopez this can be done in many complicated ways that require various amounts of money, research and work.

    But just to literally start messing with something, you can use a cheap handheld radio like a Baofeng, and a phone with an app called Rattlegram or AndFLMsg.

    Type the message in the app, press the PTT button on the radio, hit "send" in the app. App will play some noise, the mic on the radio will pick it up and transmit it.

    Boom. You sent a text msg over radio.

    Show threadFranklin LópezJun 18, 2025
    @anarchistrrl Holy fuck this is sick! And I have a boefang! I imagine they are not encrypted though?
    Show threadanarcatJun 18, 2025
    @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl depends on the app. note that the next-gen baofeng is the Quansheng UV-K5 and its firmware is flashable, people have been using it to do (encrypted!) point-to-point text messaging with it https://spectrum.ieee.org/quansheng-uv-k5-hacking
    The Most Hackable Handheld Ham Radio Yet

    <p>The UV-K5 can be modded at the click of a mouse</p>

    IEEE Spectrum
    Show threadZimmieJun 18, 2025
    @Anarcat @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl Note that encrypted traffic on amateur radio bands is super illegal in many countries (including the Americas, most of Europe, most of Asia, and AU/NZ). Wealthier countries have vans which can very rapidly pinpoint a transmitter.
    Show threadanarcatJun 18, 2025
    @bob_zim @anarchistrrl @franklinlopez in disaster scenarios, encryption is overrated and a nuisance. but even saying that, that requirement is loosening up quite a bit recently, and i doubt you'll have a van at your door just for using encryption
    Show threadanarcatJun 18, 2025
    @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl @bob_zim you'll have vans at your door for many other reasons, mainly because pinpointing a transmitter, yes, is relatively easy (and lora makes that harder)
    Show threadZimmieJun 18, 2025
    @Anarcat @anarchistrrl @franklinlopez Sure, the FCC-equivalent enforcement arms generally won’t go after somebody only for using encryption, but it’s like having an illegal weapon sitting around at home. They will happily toss on a pile of federal crimes if there’s another reason for them to show up (like if you send messy transmissions at high power, causing interference).
    Show threadTokyo Outsider (337ppm)Jun 19, 2025
    @bob_zim @Anarcat @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl What's the (claimed) justification for that? 🤔
    Show threadZimmieJun 19, 2025
    @tokyo_0 @Anarcat @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl Amateur radio is just that: for people who don’t do it for a living. Thus, the priority is to ensure everyone can interact and learn from each other. If encryption were generally allowed, the amateur spectrum would end up full of opaque junk like the unlicensed spectrum is.
    Show threadAnarchist Radio Relay LeagueJun 19, 2025
    @bob_zim @tokyo_0 @Anarcat @franklinlopez 100%. There's straight up just a finite amount of radio spectrum, and at least some of it needs to be used for open communication.
    Show threadZimmieJun 19, 2025

    @anarchistrrl @tokyo_0 @Anarcat @franklinlopez And encrypted digital is *extremely* hungry for spectrum. Amateur radio transmissions are typically 25 kHz wide. A lot of newer radios also support “narrow FM” at 12.5 kHz bandwidth.

    In contrast, to get the peak theoretical performance out of WiFi 7 (802.11be), it needs two 160 MHz wide bands. For longer range, the narrowest LTE bands are 1.4 MHz, the widest are 20 MHz, and high throughput uses multiple wide links (e.g, “gigabit LTE” is achieved using MIMO with four links at 20 MHz each).

    Show threadAnarchist Radio Relay LeagueJun 19, 2025
    @bob_zim @tokyo_0 @Anarcat @franklinlopez well...that is quite a hornet's nest of RF nerd technicalities that we could probably argue about until the heat death of the universe, but I'd rather not subject the innocent bystanders in this thread to all that.
    Show threadanarcatJun 19, 2025
    @anarchistrrl @franklinlopez @tokyo_0 @bob_zim such a tease
    Show threadAnarchist Radio Relay LeagueJun 19, 2025
    @Anarcat @franklinlopez @tokyo_0 @bob_zim 🤣
    Show threadTerrorBite 🦁Jun 26, 2025
    @bob_zim @Anarcat @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl it's not mystery vans you need to be worried about finding your transmitter, it's other hams who do that kind of thing for fun.
    Show threadanarcatJun 26, 2025
    @TerrorBite @bob_zim @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl then you get to meet folks!
    Show threadTerrorBite 🦁Jun 27, 2025

    @Anarcat @bob_zim @franklinlopez @anarchistrrl I'm down for that!

    Back on topic, in my area, all the surrounding mountaintops have solar-powered Meshtastic relays installed on them.

    Show threadAnarchist Radio Relay LeagueJun 18, 2025

    @Anarcat @franklinlopez yeah the k5/k6 is pretty cool.

    Not quite as hackable, but have you tried the BTech UV-Pro and/or VGC VR-N76?

    Show threadAnarchist Radio Relay LeagueJun 18, 2025

    @franklinlopez not by default, no. As people have already pointed out in your other replies, encryption on the ham bands is illegal*, so I won't harp on that.

    However illegal though it may be, it is still possible, and not even all that hard. You can use a different app to generate an AES256 or PGP encrypted message, and copy-paste it into AndFLMsg and send it that way.

    *technically less illegal, and more "against the rules" but yeah the feds can fuck up your life if you get caught. Same diff.