Kashmiri protesters using internet independent app
The ‘Bridgefy’ mobile messenger application relies on Bluetooth to send and receive messages.
Protesters in Kashmir, who have been facing an internet blackout since 5 August, are being encouraged to use a mobile messenger application that relies on Bluetooth to send and receive messages.
Several recent posts on various social media platforms, accessed by The Sunday Guardian, including on pro-separatist forums, have asked people to download the “Bridgefy” application which does not need internet to transfer messages from one user to another.
Rather, it relies on Bluetooth technology and is effective within a radius of 100 meters or 330 feet. This means if 10 people are using the application in a coordinated way, the message from the first person, who is at the start of the chain, can reach the 10th person, who is 1km away from the first person, without the internet being used. Blue tooth technology can transfer both audio and video files from user to another user and is available even in basic phones.
This application, which was developed by two residents of Mexico in 2016, has become a very popular tool for protesters in Hong Kong to coordinate protests against the Chinese government.
It was during this phase of the Hong Kong protests that the application became popular and as per a measurement firm, its download across the world has increased almost 4,000% in the last three months.
The posts on pro-separatist forums, while encouraging people to download this application, mentioned how “successful” it has been in Hong Kong.
The Sunday Guardian reached out to the developers of the application seeking details of how many times it has been downloaded in India in the recent past. No response was received till the time the story went to press.
The original idea behind developing this application was to use in areas where there is poor internet connectivity or in the time of disaster so that the rescue teams could coordinate with one other.
This application and another similar application, Firechat, are being used by organisers in Western countries to closely coordinate with volunteers in events like music festivals and book fairs.
It is not clear whether Indian agencies are aware of the presence of such applications and the fact that it was used by protestors in Hong Kong, Iran and Iraq in recent times.
Bridgefy CEO Jorge Rios in an interview on 23 August to Latam List, a media outlet that covers start-ups in Latin countries, said that it had “75,000 downloads in the past seven days, just from Hong Kong”.