Lantern (software)

Lantern is a free internet censorship circumvention tool that operates in some of the most extreme censorship environments, such as China, Iran, and Russia. It uses wide variety of protocols and techniques that obfuscate network traffic and/or co-mingle traffic with protocols censors are reluctant to block. It also uses domain fronting. It is not an anonymity tool like Tor.

Lantern was developed and is maintained by Brave New Software Project, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Brave New Software was founded in 2010 and “is dedicated to keeping the internet open and decentralized through user-focused open tools that solve practical problems in how the internet works for people."

Early versions of Lantern allowed users in countries having free internet access to share their internet connection with those who are in countries where the network is partly blocked. Network connections will be dispersed between multiple computers running Lantern so it will not put undue stress on a single connection or computer.

Lantern's CEO and lead developer is Adam Fisk, is a former lead engineer of LimeWire and LittleShoot.