According to Gizmodo, Ugandans have downloaded the Bitchat app hundreds of thousands of times on Android devices in recent days, a figure that amounts to roughly 1% of the country’s population. This surge is a direct response to fears of an internet shutdown during the presidential elections set for next week. The spike followed public calls from opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, who urged citizens to preemptively install the app. This caution stems from the 2021 elections, when a nationwide internet blackout lasted over four days. On Monday, Nyombi Thembo, head of the Uganda Communications Commission, warned that Bitchat could be blocked, even as other officials denied any plans for a shutdown. The app was created by Jack Dorsey as a weekend project last summer and allows for Bluetooth-powered, peer-to-peer mesh networking that operates without traditional internet infrastructure.
The Mesh Networking Playbook
Here’s the thing: Uganda isn’t an isolated case. It’s following a now-established playbook. We saw this just months ago in Nepal, where Bitchat downloads jumped from 3,000 to 50,000 daily after the government banned 26 platforms like Facebook and Signal. Protesters used its Bluetooth mesh—where each device acts as a node with about a 30-meter range—to organize marches that ultimately helped topple the government. A similar, sharp rise happened in Indonesia during protests there. It’s basically the modern, digital version of passing notes in class, but for when the teacher (in this case, the state) shuts down the entire school’s communication system.
And that’s the core appeal. Apps like Bitchat, or FireChat before it, exploit a simple truth: it’s much harder to jam every radio signal between devices in a crowded city than it is to flip a switch at a few internet service providers. Governments are really good at centralized control. Decentralized, peer-to-peer networks throw a wrench in that. Of course, the tech has limits. Bluetooth mesh is fantastic for coordinating in a square or a neighborhood, but it falters over longer distances without a very dense user base. For wider areas, you need to add hardware like GoTenna’s radio devices, which can create ad-hoc networks spanning kilometers. It’s a fascinating escalation in the cat-and-mouse game of communication control.
The Starlink Wild Card
But mesh networking isn’t the only tool complicating state control. The other huge variable is satellite internet, namely Starlink. While it’s still a centralized source (you’re just connecting to SpaceX’s satellites instead of a local ISP), it provides a lifeline when terrestrial networks go dark. We’ve seen it used in Sudan during conflict and in Afghanistan under Taliban restrictions. Now, Starlink’s official stance is that it doesn’t operate in unlicensed countries like Uganda. But let’s be real—there are already reports of users activating terminals in one country and using them elsewhere on roaming. How long before that becomes a common, if clandestine, workaround?
So what does this mean? It means the old playbook of an “internet shutdown” is getting harder to execute cleanly. Outside of extreme, totalitarian control like North Korea, completely silencing a population is becoming a technological nightmare. People have options. They might be patchy, or slow, or require proximity, but they exist. The barrier to entry for maintaining some form of digital communication during a crisis is lower than it’s ever been.
A Shifting Battlefield
Look, I don’t think mesh apps are going to replace the internet anytime soon. The dream of a fully decentralized web is just that for now—a dream. But for specific, critical moments of political unrest or natural disaster? They’re incredibly powerful. They turn every smartphone into a potential node in a shadow network.
The warning from Uganda’s communications regulator is telling. They felt the need to publicly state they *could* block Bitchat, which almost feels like an admission of concern. It signals that authorities are aware their old tactics have new counters. The real test will be next week. If the internet stays on, Bitchat might see less use. But if it goes dark, we’ll get a real-world stress test of just how resilient a grassroots mesh network can be in 2025. The results will be watched far beyond Uganda’s borders.
