Inside Awala

Podcast by Gus Narea

Inside Awala

Your backstage tour to Internet censorship and how we're planning to circumvent it with Awala, hosted by its author, Gus Narea. This show will be particularly relevant to people coming from countries subject to severe censorship, as well as anyone with an interest in using technology to make a dent in the world.

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Latest episodes

03 January 2025

S00E05: The future of Internet censorship and Awala's role

Join me in the finale of Season 0 of Inside Awala as we dive into the future of Internet censorship and explore Awala's role. Despite global Internet freedom declining for the 14th consecutive year, I believe that we can eventually turn the tide against repressive regimes and their staggering censorship budgets. I'll share why I think that AI is both a threat and an opportunity, accelerating the splintering of the Internet whilst also offering tools to counteract censorship and enhance outreach. We'll navigate the challenges posed by national firewalls, the diminishing effectiveness of traditional circumvention techniques, and the unsettling erosion of Internet freedom even within democracies.

References

Awala: https://awala.app/
"Internet Freedom Status by Country (2023)": https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nudAfFpisAHcA7qRjyndVieawDIzMrCgrVmVcL9ICes/edit
"Freedom on the Net 2024: The Struggle for Trust Online", key findings: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2024/struggle-trust-online#key-findings
"Buying Silence: The Price of Internet Censorship in China": https://jamestown.org/program/buying-silence-the-price-of-internet-censorship-in-china/
"Russia to invest over half a billion US dollars in its battle against VPN usage": https://www.techradar.com/pro/vpn/russia-to-invest-over-half-a-billion-us-dollars-in-its-battle-against-vpn-usage
"Summary of the FY 2023 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill": https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SFOPS%20FY%2023.pdf
"Seven things you need to know about climate change and conflict": https://www.icrc.org/en/document/climate-change-and-conflict
"Making new connections: from BridgeDB to Rdsys": https://blog.torproject.org/making-connections-from-bridgedb-to-rdsys/
"China's National Anti-Fraud Center – Security Assessment": https://www.opentech.fund/news/chinas-national-anti-fraud-center-security-assessment/
"REVEAL Report": https://www.lumen.global/reveal-report
OTF's Nat Kretchun Testified on "The Great Firewall and the CCP's Export of its Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State": https://www.opentech.fund/news/otfs-nat-kretchun-testifies-on-the-great-firewall-and-the-ccps-export-of-its-techno-authoritarian-surveillance-state/
"First-time culprit: France blocks TikTok in New Caledonia": https://www.accessnow.org/france-blocks-tiktok-new-caledonia/
"Online abortion service, Women On Web, continues to fight censorship in Spain": https://womenslinkworldwide.org/en/online-abortion-service-women-on-web-continues-to-fight-censorship-in-spain/
"Leaked Government Document Shows Spain Wants to Ban End-to-End Encryption": https://www.wired.com/story/europe-break-encryption-leaked-document-csa-law/
"India: 'Internet shutdown capital of the world'": https://www.dw.com/en/india-internet-shutdown-capital-of-the-world/a-64997062
"Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South": https://www.404media.co/pornhub-is-now-blocked-in-almost-all-of-the-u-s-south/

Discuss this episode on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1hsuoze/inside_awala_podcast_s00e05_the_future_of/

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18:44

17 December 2024

S00E04: Trying to test Awala in the real world, and charting a new route through China

Come in and listen to my journey attempting to test Awala in the real world. After facing significant funding challenges and setbacks with my initial plans, I made the difficult decision to extend Awala's scope to incorporate a VPN, initially targeting China. The episode explores how this strategic shift, whilst definitely not ideal, could ultimately help fund crucial improvements to Awala's network whilst providing immediate value to users in censored regions. I also share insights about leveraging AI to accelerate development and the challenges of building technology for unpredictable Internet blackouts.

References

Awala: https://awala.app/en/
“Reach for the Stars: How Starlink Conquered Latin America”: https://blog.telegeography.com/reach-for-the-stars-how-starlink-conquered-latin-america
“#KeepItOn STOP Data 2016-2023 [Public]”: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DvPAuHNLp5BXGb0nnZDGNoiIwEeu2ogdXEIDvT4Hyfk/edit
"The DDoS Report": https://ddos.report/
"Despacito: Rate limiting protocol to mitigate DDoS attacks": https://despacito.bot/
"Awala: The computer network on which humankind can rely" on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41646782

Discuss this episode on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1hghz1j/inside_awala_podcast_s00e04_trying_to_test_awala/

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26:26

08 November 2024

S00E03: How we built the Awala network

Four years, around a dozen freelancers, and more than $750k in non-dilutive funding from the Open Technology Fund, Mozilla Corporation, and others. That's what it took to build the Awala network, despite significant challenges.

References

Awala on the Open Technology Fund website: https://www.opentech.fund/projects-we-support/supported-projects/awala/
Awala security audits: https://awala.app/en/about/#security-audits
Mozilla Builders, Summer 2020, Open Lab winner: https://twitter.com/mozillabuilders/status/1324427116809580544
Lowering the barrier to adopt Awala: https://awala.app/en/blog/lowering-adoption-barrier/
‘Wednesday night massacre’ as Trump appointee takes over at global media agency: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html
Letro: https://letro.app/en/
VeraId: https://veraid.net/
What my desktop looked like whilst building and testing Awala: https://twitter.com/0xgnarea/status/1307340115115741186

Discuss this episode on Reddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1gr2gk9/inside_awala_podcast_s00e03_how_we_built_the/

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18:57

27 October 2024

S00E02: The founding and funding of Relaycorp

Learn the story behind Relaycorp, the company behind Awala, and how I managed to secure funding to build Awala whilst all I had was a prototype and the documentation for how I'd go about building it. I also share my rationale for creating a for-profit company, as opposed to a charity.

References

Relaycorp: https://relaycorp.tech/
Open Technology Fund (OTF): https://www.opentech.fund/
The project’s website, relaynet.link, as it looked like during the concept note phase: https://web.archive.org/web/20190207150351/https://relaynet.link/
Mastodon project on GitHub, "Add Relaynet support so people can use Mastodon when the Internet is down": https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/10267

To discuss this episode, please go to r/Awala on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1gdzh8a/inside_awala_podcast_s00e02_the_founding_and/

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18:22

13 October 2024

S00E01: How North Korea shaped Awala

In this episode, I share the story of how Awala started as a research project, and why I chose to use North Korea as a reference for the kind of censorship that the technology would have to circumvent in theory. What I'm sharing is the upshot of my research at Oxford, before founding Relaycorp and securing funding to build Awala.

References

Awala: https://awala.network/
FireChat – the messaging app that’s powering the Hong Kong protests: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/firechat-messaging-app-powering-hong-kong-protests
Internet over Avian Carriers: https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/pigeon-powered-internet-takes-flight/
North Korea’s Hidden Revolution by Jieun Baek: https://www.jieunbaek.com/north-koreas-hidden-revolution/
“Compromising Connectivity: Information Dynamics between the State & Society in a Digitizing North Korea” by Nat Kretchun, Catherine Lee and Seamus Tuohy: https://usakoreainstitute.org/research/special-reports/compromisingconnectivity/
Osama bin Laden’s Sneakernet Email System: https://techland.time.com/2011/05/13/osama-bin-ladens-sneakernet-email-system/
Chinese hackers breached US court wiretap systems, WSJ reports: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/chinese-hackers-breached-us-court-wiretap-systems-wsj-reports-2024-10-06/
Got my mind set on you by George Harrison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpUPFnk1NAs
Telcos band together to re-connect Kaikoura: https://media.one.nz/article/telcos-band-together-re-connect-kaikoura
Memorabilia: https://imgur.com/a/AJrz4mk

Discussion

Questions? Feedback? Let's discuss this episode on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1g2vhgz/inside_awala_podcast_s00e01_how_north_korea/

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27:44

24 September 2024

S00E00: Introduction

In this introductory episode, we look at Internet censorship and how we're planning to circumvent it with Awala. You'll get a sneak peek at what’s to come in future episodes, including behind-the-scenes insights into its development and the challenges faced when building technology for regions impacted by Internet disruptions.

References:

Awala network: https://awala.network
Internet Freedom Status by Country (2023): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nudAfFpisAHcA7qRjyndVieawDIzMrCgrVmVcL9ICes/edit
Freedom on the Net 2023 report: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2023/repressive-power-artificial-intelligence#key-findings
Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19934048/

Discuss this episode on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awala/comments/1foneil/inside_awala_podcast_s00e00_introduction/

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05:52