Communicating at a protest

Key points

• With a network: Signal, with disappearing messages on.
• Without a network: Briar, with at least one Android user per group (comms lead).
• Install, test and add your contacts before you leave: nothing can be downloaded on site.
• Always a paper plan: meeting point, fallback time, numbers written down.

On site, the mobile network often saturates, and a phone can be lost or seized. Pick the tool for the situation, and have a no-network plan B.

Where to start?

• Choosing an app: the comparison.
• The network is cut or saturated: if the Internet or social media are cut.

Comparison

Criterion	Signal	Briar	Meshtastic	Bitchat
Works without Internet	No: mobile network or Wi-Fi needed	Yes, device to device over Bluetooth or local Wi-Fi1	Yes: the phone connects to the device over Bluetooth (or Wi-Fi, USB), then devices talk to each other over LoRa radio, without mobile network or Internet23	Yes, phone to phone over Bluetooth, relayed up to 7 hops4
Hardware	Just the phone	Just the phone (Android)1	A LoRa radio device (a few tens of euros), paired with the phone over Bluetooth2	Just the phone (Android and iPhone)4
Encryption	End-to-end, with forward secrecy5	End-to-end, contacts stored on the phone1	Direct messages encrypted; channels encrypted with a shared key. The default channel uses a public key: anyone can read it6	Private messages encrypted (Noise protocol), but a fixed identifier and the nickname are broadcast in clear text7
Advantages	Simple, widespread, calls and groups, disappearing messages8	No infrastructure, no phone number to give	Range of several kilometres as a mesh, independent of cell towers2	No account or number; also works on iPhone4
Use cases	Coordination before and during the protest while the network holds; affinity groups	Nearby group, network saturated or cut	Teams spread over a large area (stewards, street medics, legal team), network cut	Fallback between Android and iPhone when the network is cut, for non-sensitive information
Drawbacks	Depends on the mobile network; requires a phone number8	Short range; Android only; you must add each other as contacts beforehand1	Hardware to buy and set up; short text only; packet headers unencrypted and no forward secrecy6; airtime limited by regulation9	Recent app; anyone picking up Bluetooth can list participants and track a phone from place to place7

Our recommendation without Internet: Briar

If the network is cut or saturated, use Briar, even if your group is mostly on iPhone: you only need one Android user per group, the comms lead, who centralises messages and relays them by word of mouth. Briar is end-to-end encrypted and needs no hardware or phone number.¹ Install Briar before the protest: once you are cut off from the mobile network, you can't download it. Keep Bitchat as a fallback: it allows a phone to be tracked.⁷

If the Internet or social media are cut

The mobile network can saturate, be jammed or be cut. The government can also seek to block specific platforms: after TikTok was suspended in New Caledonia in May 2024, according to documents published by Blast, the Prime Minister's office wrote on 22 October 2026 to the four main telecom operators asking them to prepare a DNS block on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and X; the measure was ultimately not applied.¹⁰¹¹ Have a plan that works without centralised platforms, or with no network at all.

• If only social media are blocked by DNS filtering: encrypted messengers like Signal generally keep working, and an account-free VPN (Mullvad VPN) or the Tor network (Orbot, Tor Browser) bypasses a carrier DNS block.¹⁰
• Briar or Meshtastic: see the comparison above, to install and test beforehand if all mobile Internet is cut.
• PMR446 walkie-talkies: usable without a licence or subscription across the European Union, a few kilometres of range in town.¹² But nothing is encrypted: anyone tuned to the same channel hears everything, police included.¹² Keep them for non-sensitive instructions ("we're moving", "point B") and agree on the channel beforehand.
• Texts and calls: if only mobile data is cut, they may still get through, but they are not encrypted.
• The paper plan, which never breaks down:
  • a fixed meeting point away from the route, and a fallback time: if you get separated, go there at the agreed time, then at the next one;
  • useful numbers written on paper or on your arm, and the printed pocket card;
  • an offline or paper map of the area (pre-protest checklist).

Good practice

• Install and test your apps before leaving, and add your Briar contacts then: if the mobile network is cut or saturated on site, you won't be able to download anything.
• Signal: turn on disappearing messages, set to a few hours (8 h, or 3 h as a custom time), a few hours before the protest, at the peak of organising, then as short as you can manage, and screen lock; create separate groups per purpose (Signal groups: organising while limiting leaks).⁸
• Meshtastic: create a private channel with its own key and share it only with your team; don't use the default channel for anything sensitive.⁶
• Meshtastic: change the Bluetooth pairing PIN; on devices without a screen it defaults to 123456, so anyone nearby could connect.³
• Meshtastic: set the region to EU_868; in France this band is licence-free, with limited airtime.⁹
• Briar: add each other as contacts before the protest, while you are together.
• Briar: Briar is Android-only. If your group has iPhones, pick at least one Android user as comms lead: the comms leads of the different groups stay in touch on Briar and relay news to their group by word of mouth.¹
• For all: agree on a meeting point in case nothing gets through (never stay alone).

Communication tools in the directory

In one of these situations? organising a protest · without signal or Internet

Sources

Each note links to the source of the information. Most sources are in French. Laws change: check the date of the source and, if in doubt, ask a lawyer.

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1. Briar — How it works · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩↩↩↩↩

2. Meshtastic — Introduction · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩↩

3. Meshtastic — Bluetooth configuration (pairing and PIN) · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩

4. Bitchat — Overview (README) · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩↩

5. Signal — Technical specifications (encryption protocol) · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩

6. Meshtastic — Encryption (official documentation) · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩↩

7. Bitchat — Whitepaper: identity and metadata · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩↩

8. EFF Surveillance Self-Defense — How to use Signal · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩↩

9. Meshtastic — LoRa configuration and regions (EU_868, duty cycle) · AI-sourced on Oct 28, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩

10. Blast — The Prime Minister prepared a social media shutdown for 24 October (24 October 2026, in French) · AI-sourced on Oct 29, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩

11. Wikipedia — 24 October 2026 French protests (in French) · AI-sourced on Oct 29, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩

12. Wikipedia (FR) — PMR446 · AI-sourced on Oct 29, 2026 · awaiting human check ↩↩