New, Free Internet: Project Meshnet

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Comrades, I doubt this is just a little bump in the road for the internet, but rather that the internet now is finished as any sort of freer medium of mass comunication.
That has consequences for political websites like this one, as well as for file sharing. Privacy online now is dead.

We need a new independent means of communication which no ruling class on earth could shut down or unmask its users. We need it very soon.

Main Discussion on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/darknetplan/
Project Outline: http://goo.gl/XKebT
Forum: http://projectmeshnet.org/

I figured this warranted an entire new thread to bring attention to it. It's gaining a lot of steam ... 23,000+ people follow the reddit page.

[Zav]

What about projects like Freenet and Gnutella? They're already impossible to shut down or restrict access to, yes?

[PC LOAD LETTER]

What about projects like Freenet and Gnutella? They're already impossible to shut down or restrict access to, yes?
They require the existing internet to function. This project aims to succeed the internet entirely, to completely decentralize it.

[workersadvocate]

Thank you, I will look into this.
Revlefters should discuss this.
Imagine being able to put websites like Revleft up on an entirely independent, decentralized, anonymous and unstoppable internet. Having these alternative means of mass communication during intense repression and emergencies will be crucial. Why should our enemies be allowed to hold all the cards and decide what can or cannot be communicated, whose privacy they can invade, and which users they can drag out and persecute?
Our revolution will need its own internet.

[workersadvocate]

One concern I'd have is about who controls the local networks.
That is, we simply can't trust rightwingers or small business.
I suppose a lot if these techie folks involved fall into one of those categories and thus would be willing to shaft communists.
Fascists are going to be setting up similar networks, you know.
Obvious bad idea to depend on them or anyone who'd be our enemies in an emergency situation. We need some working class "red techies".

[PC LOAD LETTER]

One concern I'd have is about who controls the local networks.
That is, we simply can't trust rightwingers or small business types.
I suppose a lot if these techie folks involved fall into one of those categories and thus would be willing to shaft communists.
Fascists are going to be setting up similar networks, you know.
Obvious bad idea to depend on them or anyone who'd be our enemies in an emergency situation.
The main point is that it would be impossible to shut down completely. Today's internet now is disproportionately under the thumb of the US government. As a mesh network, there is no single point of failure (like our current centralized DNS system).

The current plans don't mention anonymity as far as I can see, but I could be wrong. Protection on other levels can be accomplished by taking design cues from other technologies, like i2p or freenet. Those would both conceal the source of a web site, protecting it from attack, and protect the visitors from the web site itself (say it was a rogue web site trying to gather information on leftists). Or you could use encryption ... like GnuPG.