Bitchat Removal Draws Legal Challenge
Bitchat, the Bluetooth-based messaging app created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has reportedly been taken down from India’s Apple app store, adding to a series of official moves against the app. The step has drawn fresh attention to how the government views tools that work without the internet.
It follows a July 23, 2026 directive from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs, asking GitHub to remove repositories containing the app’s source code and its Android version. GitHub was given a three-hour deadline, and the order cited the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Officials argued that the design of the app makes lawful monitoring difficult. It lets people talk over a Bluetooth mesh network without central servers, registration or message logs, which the notice said significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution and investigation by law enforcement agencies.
The government also raised concern that such tools could help people circumvent restrictions during public disorder, riots, terrorism or internet shutdowns. The notice followed reports that people at the Cockroach Janta Party protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi used similar Bluetooth-based apps while internet access was restricted.
Dorsey shared the notice publicly on X, and the Internet Freedom Foundation has challenged the order as unconstitutional, arguing that it targets the architecture of the app rather than specific illegal content. Users and developers will be watching whether the app returns to the store and how courts treat such orders in future.
