Efforts to provide satellite service as an alternative could theoretically be very fruitful and threaten the totality of internet blackouts. The basic issue of connectivity access is still a fundamental challenge. The app, which has been circulating in Iran since 2016 and is now developed by United for Iran, lets users crowdsource information about the movements of the regime’s “morality police” and is now also being used to track other security forces and checkpoints. For example, Firuzeh Mahmoudi, executive director of the US-based nonprofit United for Iran, says that the law enforcement-tracking app Gershad has been in heavy use during the connectivity blackouts. Users in Iran have also been leaning on other services that have proxies built in. Echoing the issue with safely downloading apps like Signal, it can also be difficult for people to determine whether circumvention measures they learn about are legitimate or tainted.
Similarly, other efforts to establish clandestine infrastructure within the country are fraught because they often require too much technical expertise for a layperson to carry out safely. The work is difficult without infrastructure and resources, though, and is extremely dangerous if the regime detects the activity. The anonymity service Tor is largely inaccessible in Iran, but some activists are working to establish Tor bridges within Iran to connect internal country networks to the global platform. In an attempt to address this, the Signal Foundation created the email address that people can message to request a safe copy of the app.
Android users who can’t connect to Google Play can also download the app directly from Signal’s website, but this creates the possibility that malicious versions of the Signal app could circulate on other forums and trick people into downloading them. Still, if people in Iran don’t already have the Signal app installed on their phones or haven’t registered their phone numbers, the connectivity outages make it difficult to download the app or receive the SMS code used for account setup.
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