I know of a few mesh apps. But what's significant about this one is the protesters self selected it.

Dictators can cut off social media apps, even cut of Internet access. But they risk turning more people out in the streets if they cut the power.

interesting that mentioning mesh and the problems of adopting it for anything but philanthropism is not considered valid by some. Yes there was a group consensus that a mesh was needed to communicate as a workaround to internet blockades, the only next step now would be to jam whatever the equivalent of 802.11* is over there. I seriously wish them best of luck, thats all i can hope for from here. Cutting the power would be exactly the thing that escalates it from NotMyProblem to now its affecting me

They don't need to jam the signal. It easier to infiltrate agents broadcasting phony messages among the protesters, creating confusion.