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FireChat was a tool for revolution, then disappeared

With FireChat, people were free to communicate and coordinate with each other without the message having to first filter through someone's data center. Why did the app shut down without notice?

For years, FireChat helped people circumvent their internet gatekeepers— the authoritarian governments and spineless corporations that control our every move through a network of proprietary data centers and deep-sea cables. Singaporeans, Ecuadorians, Russians, and seemingly every pro-democracy movement globally took advantage of the off-grid mesh network provided by the FireChat app. The mobile app cleverly leveraged the Bluetooth and WiFi signals already emitting from our phones to create peer-to-peer connections known as a mesh network.

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