MESSAGING APPS
Bitchat, a Bluetooth mesh messaging app, is surging in Uganda as citizens brace for a possible election internet blackout. After Nepal and Indonesia, over 1% of Ugandans have downloaded Bitchat, showing how “freedom tech” is redefining communication under government censorship.
CULTURE
71% of teens want to help design websites, 44% prioritize data privacy, and 39% spend most time on short videos, says Acquia’s new Gen Z & Alpha web experience survey.
MESSAGING APPS
Signal should use Bitcoin and or Monero
OPEN-SOURCE
The premise is simple: instead of subscribing to dozens of email newsletters that flood your inbox, Perch aggregates all your favorite writers and publications in one place.
CULTURE
The pattern is becoming impossible to ignore. When governments face protests, their first instinct is to cut communication channels. Ban social media. Shut down the internet. Control the narrative by controlling the pipes. But protesters are adapting faster than authoritarian playbooks can keep up.
OPEN-SOURCE
Bitchat works when everything else fails. No internet, no cell towers, no servers just Bluetooth mesh networks that get stronger as more people join. What started as Jack Dorsey's weekend coding session became the communication tool refugees and disaster victims need.
OPEN-SOURCE
Jay Graber at SXSW 2025, wearing a shirt with "mundus sine caesaribus" — Latin for "a world without Caesars."