Bridgefy app downloaded over 600,000 times for offline messaging in Myanmar amid crisis

Bridgefy, an offline messaging mobile was downloaded more than 600,000 times in just a few hours of Myanmar coup as the military seized the power on February 1 and temporarily suspended the internet services. The Mexico-based startup uses real mesh-networking technology for both Apple and Android users enabling people with immense distances to connect with each other without an internet connection. As chaos engulfed the Southeast Asian nation on Monday, Bridegfy informed on February 3 that hopefully, people in the country are finding the application “helpful during tough times”. 

Myanmar is under the control of the military and a state of emergency for a year with reports stating that State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other government leaders have been detained. In the run-up to the November 2020 election, Army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has acquired the power of the nation now, had claimed that civilian government was making "unacceptable mistakes". The military alleged that the elections were full of ‘irregularities’ and questioned the veracity of at least 9 million votes cast in November 2020 even though the country’s election commission rejected the claims of fraud. Myanmar military stressed that it will protect and abide by its constitution. 

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Myanmar Medics Organise 'Civil Disobedience Movement'

The party of Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the  National League for Democracy (NLD), has called for her immediate release and for November 2020 election results to be acknowledged by the military. The arrest of Myanmar’s de facto leader has not only led to a situation of crisis but also sparked outrage across the nation. A statement on the Facebook page of May Win Myint, an NLD official, aid the party’s executive committee urged the military to acknowledge the results of November’s election and called for the parliamentary session due to start this week to go ahead.

The post also called on the military for her release. While streets remain comparatively calm, people took to the internet to show support to the Nobel laureate. Many others lit candles or banging pots and pans in symbolic civil disobedience movement. The campaign also stretched across doctors and health workers who asserted that they will not work under the military, starting from Wednesday, February 3.

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