Mahsa Alert app aids Iranian civilians amid war, internet blackout

As the U.S. and Israel round out a fifth week of war with Iran, some 93 million civilians living inside Iran are stuck in a conflict zone without a missile alert system or access to the internet. Another 4 million people of Iranian origin worldwide are cut off from their friends and family still in Iran. 

While the Islamic Republic has left its own people in the dark, Holistic Resilience, a group of engineers focused on internet freedom, is using an app called Mahsa Alert to light the way.

The app is named after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in 2022 after an arrest by Iran’s “morality police.” This group regularly detains women it believes do not comply with the country’s mandatory hair-covering laws. Her death became the impetus for widespread protests after decades of oppression. Amini’s image is now a symbol of what has become known as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.

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Holistic Resilience said it first recognized the lack of civilian protections during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.

Millions of civilians living inside Iran are stuck in a conflict zone without a missile alert system or access to the internet. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“They’re checking on the surroundings of their loved ones’ neighborhoods to make sure there is no location that could be potentially a target of these strikes and inform them to stay away from them,” said Ahmad Ahmadian, the executive director of Holistic Resilience.

Using crowdsourcing and open-source intelligence, volunteers analyze about 100 tips a day for validity and accuracy. These reports can come in the form of social media videos or photos or messages on Telegram. They also map the location of some 18,000 CCTV cameras around the country.

As the 17th-largest country in the world by area, Iran presents a significant mapping challenge.

“We have to be up to be able to immediately push out that notification. The last one was, I guess, in the middle of the night,” said Ahmadian. “I have colleagues that are working near 16 hours on this project. We have been self-funding this project from the beginning, and we never stopped doing that despite all of the challenges. The reason for that is it’s something that people need to have, and it saves lives.”

Internet connectivity in Iran estimated at less than 1%. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

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