Lantern

Through Surge and Sustain, OTF is supporting Lantern's user-carrying cost for non-monetizable users of its service to ensure that citizens living in repressive environments have access to these critical anti-censorship technologies. As a Technology at Scale project, Lantern helps USAGM audiences discover and access USAGM content through both its own application and by ensuring that USAGM news remains uncensored.

Recent development includes improved versions of Lantern's apps on desktop and mobile platforms. Most notably in a mobile context, this includes Lantern’s peer-to-peer (P2P) functionality, with mobile users in uncensored regions providing access to users in censored regions.

The desktop version of Lantern has been largely successful in offering a open source censorship circumvention tool that is resistant to blocking, financially and technically scalable, and usable by any ordinary persons. The Android version of Lantern will include all of the blocking resistance features of Lantern on desktop.

Most notably in a mobile context, this will include Lantern’s peer-to-peer (P2P) functionality, with mobile users in uncensored regions providing access to users in censored regions. While such a system includes a number of technical challenges on mobile, we feel strongly that we can meet those challenges through only deploying it in specific contexts.