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After the tragic murder of Mahsa/Zhina Amini, Lantern and the world have witnessed the resolute Iranian voice of protest and uprising. Led by young courageous women armed with a refusal to return to the status quo, the unrest has reverberated with the Kurdish feminist chant, “Woman, Life, Freedom!” An undeniable declaration to the world that Iran will never be the same, these voices would not have been heard without access to an uncensored Internet.
In 2019, the Islamic regime shut down Iran’s entire Internet and during the blackout proceeded to kill 1500 people in less than two weeks. The world was unable to witness Iran’s suffering and defiance as it does today. There is no doubt, access to the uncensored internet saves lives.
At this very moment, the atrocities — the hundreds of protester deaths since September 17th, the brutalization and incarceration of countless peaceful protestors — as well as the breathtaking solidarity of the Iranian people are being documented on Iranian mobile phones and computers for the world to see. Uncensored Internet is bending Iranian life toward equality and inclusivity. It’s hard to fathom how the intractable authoritarian leadership has a place in this country’s future.
For nearly 10 years, Lantern’s Internet censorship circumvention software has given Iranians free access to the uncensored Internet. During this time, we have never experienced such exponential growth of our software or such hope that a democratic Iran just might be within grasp. Lantern’s Iranian user base has grown by approximately 400%, to over 8 million monthly active users since the protests began in September. Our network traffic has skyrocketed to almost 200 gigabits per second. Plain and simple, as much as 13% of all Iranian Internet capacity is running through Lantern, a nonprofit organization with less than 30 employees.
Unfortunately, this unprecedented use and the increasingly aggressive efforts of Iran’s Islamic regime to curtail online communication have come at a significant financial cost. Lantern’s umbrella 501(c)(3) non-profit, Brave New Software Project, Inc, is spending an astronomical and unsustainable amount on server costs. To offset these rising expenses, we have launched a fundraising campaign to ensure Lantern continues offering fast, reliable, and secure Internet at no cost to the Iranian people. Without additional financial support, we will not be able to support Iran’s open Internet access at the same scale. By setting a fundraising goal of $500,000, we can assure 5 million Iranians have access to the open Internet for a month.
We’re operating our software in a challenging and insidious environment. The Iranian government’s blocking of Instagram and nightly shutoffs of cellular data have been well publicized. Outside of the public eye, however, the Iranian censors have been systematically taking huge swaths of the Internet offline, including major data centers. We suspect these changes have effectively disabled many other anti-censorship tools entirely. Lantern, however, has managed to function largely due to our roots — circumventing censors in China. The complexities of evading the Great Firewall have given us great insight into how to contend with the Islamic regime's Internet censorship.
To prepare for the possibility of another Iranian Internet shutdown, we have added the Discover tab within the Lantern App. This feature provides a censorship-resistant, privacy-protected public content archive, offering an easy way to find and share censored or potentially censored content. All Lantern users can anonymously and securely upload videos and content for the world to see. The Lantern team is also currently working with human rights organizations, independent media, and civil society groups to upload content likely to be targeted for future blocking and surveillance.
While Lantern endeavors to sustain free and uncensored Internet access for Iranians, our efforts pale in comparison to the determination and passion displayed by the Iranian people. These protests are an explosion of social expression not seen in generations and are now a part of Iran’s daily life, its history, and its future. The Iran Internet outage of 2019 clearly demonstrated the graveness of disconnecting a country. History will not be repeated, this moment will be witnessed. Lantern stands committed to amplifying Iran, its voices, its stories, for the world to hear. Lives will be saved.
ABOUT LANTERN: Over the past decade, Lantern has become one of the most trusted and effective Internet censorship circumvention tools on the planet, with 150 million-plus downloads worldwide. Lantern uses a wide range of protocols and techniques to bypass censorship and provide access to blocked websites and apps.
In Solidarity,
-The Lantern Team
- Donate to Lantern here https://donorbox.org/uncensored-internet-saves-lives-lantern
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