You’re forgetting about steganography; encrypted messages can be made to look like vacation photos, music, spam or something else. Using steganography sounds complicated when you describe it, but in practice all the details are handled transparently by some software, so it’s just one-time setup.
The occupying power announces that until the insurgents stop killing innocent civilians and sowing disorder, no one in contested territory is permitted to use the internet to transmit vacation photos, music, spam, etc. Civilians whose livelihoods are interrupted by these restrictions can apply for monetary compensation from the occupying power. Music and other entertainment will still be available from iTunes and other major centralized services (unless and until there are signs that these centralized services are being used to broadcast hidden messages).
In the Malay Emergency, the occupying power, which won the conflict, required 500,000 civilians to relocate to new villages surrounded by barbed wire, police posts and floodlit areas. Compared to that, restrictions on the internet are mild.
Also, the need for steg reduces the bandwidth available to the insurgents—perhaps below the level required for voice communication, which requires the communicators to be literate, which denys the communications channel to a large fraction of the world’s insurgents.
“One-time” is a bit of a stretch (all it takes is being found out once to greatly impair the value of any particular method), but yeah—steganography is an established and worthy technique.
You’re forgetting about steganography; encrypted messages can be made to look like vacation photos, music, spam or something else. Using steganography sounds complicated when you describe it, but in practice all the details are handled transparently by some software, so it’s just one-time setup.
The occupying power announces that until the insurgents stop killing innocent civilians and sowing disorder, no one in contested territory is permitted to use the internet to transmit vacation photos, music, spam, etc. Civilians whose livelihoods are interrupted by these restrictions can apply for monetary compensation from the occupying power. Music and other entertainment will still be available from iTunes and other major centralized services (unless and until there are signs that these centralized services are being used to broadcast hidden messages).
In the Malay Emergency, the occupying power, which won the conflict, required 500,000 civilians to relocate to new villages surrounded by barbed wire, police posts and floodlit areas. Compared to that, restrictions on the internet are mild.
Also, the need for steg reduces the bandwidth available to the insurgents—perhaps below the level required for voice communication, which requires the communicators to be literate, which denys the communications channel to a large fraction of the world’s insurgents.
“One-time” is a bit of a stretch (all it takes is being found out once to greatly impair the value of any particular method), but yeah—steganography is an established and worthy technique.