Using circumventing media to counteract authoritarian regimes

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how potential circumventing media and communication technologies could potentially assist the information flow when authoritarian regimes decide to block the main channels, such as the Internet and the mobile phone networks. The point of departure is the recent Internet blackouts in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), such as Egypt, Bahrain and Libya. We discuss several applications that were developed as a response to state repression in these countries, and their future potential that would allow people to communicate more freely despite Internet and mobile network blackouts.