Former Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates analyzes President Donald Trump’s Iranian position on ‘The Bottom Line’ after an American plane was found in Iran.
As the US and Israel conclude a fifth week of war with Iran, approximately 93 million civilians living in Iran are trapped in a conflict zone without a missile warning system or access to the internet. Worldwide, another 4 million people of Iranian descent have been cut off from their friends and family still in Iran.
While the Islamic Republic keeps its own people in the dark, Holistic Resilience, a group of engineers focused on internet freedom, uses an app called Mahsa Alert to lead 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 sparked widespread protests after decades of oppression. Amini’s image is now a symbol of what has become known as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
NY FED PRESIDENT JOHN WILLIAMS WARNS IRAN-DRIVEN OIL SPRICE COULD ripple through the ECONOMY
Holistic Resilience said it recognized for the first time the lack of civilian protection during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.
Millions of citizens living in Iran are trapped in a conflict zone without a missile warning system or access to the internet. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“They are checking the surroundings of their loved ones’ neighborhoods to make sure there is no location that could potentially be a target for these strikes and informing them to stay away from there,” said Ahmad Ahmadian, the executive director of Holistic Resilience.
Using crowdsourcing and open source intelligence, volunteers analyze approximately 100 tips per day for validity and accuracy. These reports can come in the form of videos on social media or photos or posts on Telegram. They are also searching footage from around 18,000 CCTV cameras across the country.
As the 17th largest country in the world by area, Iran poses a significant mapping challenge.
“We have to get up to send that notification immediately. The last one was, I think, in the middle of the night,” Ahmadian said. “I have colleagues who are working almost 16 hours on this project. We have self-funded this project from the beginning, and despite all the challenges, we have never stopped. The reason for that is because it is something that people need, and it saves lives.”
Internet connectivity in Iran is estimated at less than 1%. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
IRAN SURVEILLES CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 12 AND PLACES THEM ON THE FRONTLINES OF WAR
The Israeli military occasionally posts evacuation notices on its Farsi-language X account. An earlier message from the account included warnings such as: “In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in the area, as it has done throughout Tehran in recent days, to attack the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure. For your safety and well-being, we ask that you immediately leave the area indicated on the map.”
Because internet connectivity in Iran is estimated at less than 1%, Israeli evacuation messages often do not reach the citizens they are intended to help.
Citizens evacuating to towns or cities they don’t know can use the Mahsa Alert app as a crucial lifeline, identifying hospitals, blood banks, government checkpoints or shelters while offline.
“We realized: if people are going to move and be displaced, they need to see the essentials, the essential locations,” Ahmadian said.
According to Holistic Resilience, the Iranian government is prioritizing its goals beyond its borders over its own people.
KEVIN O’LEARY PREDICTS GLOBAL POWER SHIFT IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS IRAN CONFLICT ROCKS OIL MARKETS
“Instead of sirens sending crisis warnings to the mass population, every day they send SMS messages from the Ministry of Intelligence threatening people. [saying] If you share information with others, we will know about it and we will come after you,” Ahmadian said.
As the 17th largest country in the world by area, Iran poses a significant mapping challenge. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The government has accused those who volunteer information to the platform of acting as Israeli spies or gathering intelligence for the US military. The group has been attacked by the Iranian government, both through hacking and by deliberately sending misinformation to undermine the group’s credibility. Unit 42 of Palo Alto Networks has reported a widespread increase in cyber threat activity by Iranian actors since the conflict began in late February.
CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO
“By increasing civilian casualties, they are stepping up their propaganda war,” Ahmadian said. ‘This is not our war. This has never been our war.”
