At first glance FireChat is just another social networking application like WhatsApp, GroupMe, Instagram, and Twitter. In fact, FireChat is like a combination of all these apps put together –it is an app where users can create group chats with up to 10,000 people, and where users can share pictures and videos. Yet the most captivating detail of this app is that it does not require internet data to work. Using Bluetooth, FireChat can create a network between phones up to 80 yards apart from each other.
The app’s name is very self explanatory. According to South China Morning Post, Micha A. Benoliel the company’s co-founder and CEO says, “We started seeing a small increase on Saturday, and then the numbers just boomed on Sunday. It’s huge; we didn’t have that many users before.” Within a matter of 24 hours about 100,000 people have downloaded the application FireChat and up to 33,000 people were using it at the same time; thus being the highest record Open Garden has ever had.
Given that in Hong Kong students and their supporters are protesting China’s refusal to back democratic elections for the territory, there is a fear that the Government will shut down the internet network entirely. Reported by The New York Times, Beijing has occasionally blocked the Internet during times of unrest, as it did in the far-western region of Xinjiang during ethnic riots in 2009. Instagram has already been blocked from China’s mainland. Protesters have turned to FireChat as refugee in case the internet is overthrown completely.
It is very easy for China to block off Facebook, Instagram, television, and even the internet. But what can China possibly do about a social network that doesnt need internet data or cellular data to function? FireChat is perhaps the only device protesters can use as a leeway for communication.