India Slaps a Repo Removal on Dorsey's Bitchat — Bluetooth Won't Budge 📡

India's cybercrime agency has ordered GitHub to remove three repositories belonging to Bitchat, the open-source Bluetooth mesh messaging app created by Jack Dorsey, granting the Microsoft-owned platform a three-hour deadline to comply. The takedown notice, issued Thursday by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, names the main Bitchat project, its Android build, and the Android releases page under the "permissionlesstech" account, and invokes Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000 read with Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021, ordering GitHub to "remove and disable access" to the code without vitiating evidence.

The order lands against the backdrop of a youth-led protest movement over examination irregularities that has drawn tens of thousands to Delhi. Mobile internet was suspended within a 1.5 km radius around Jantar Mantar and parts of Connaught Place in Central Delhi, where demonstrators camping since June over exam irregularities turned to Bitchat precisely when networks went dark. The app routes messages directly between nearby phones over Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks, using no internet, servers, phone numbers, or central accounts, a design I4C argued "significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution, and investigation" and could be exploited during "public disorder, riots, terrorism, organized crime, or internet shutdowns."

Dorsey disclosed the order publicly on July 24, 2026, posting the notice on X with the line "the government of india does not like technologies like bitchat and wants it taken down." Notice No. 11072601011432 was dated July 23, 2026. The Bitchat Community account added that "Governments that fear people talking without permission will always go after the tools that make it possible." Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed fast-track courts for officials accused of rigging exams as the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement continues to rally in the capital.

The Internet Freedom Foundation condemned the order as "unconstitutional and authoritarian," arguing that it identified no unlawful content and bypassed India's established blocking procedures. The group noted that removing the public repositories cannot disable apps already installed on devices, since open-source code can be freely copied and mirrored. The move echoes April's decision by Beijing's Cyberspace Administration of China, which ordered Apple to pull Bitchat from its China App Store under 2018 regulations governing "Internet-based Information Services With Attribute of Public Opinions of Capable of Social Mobilization," mirroring China's earlier 2023 ban on Dorsey's Nostr-based Damus. Dorsey, the former Twitter chief and current Block CEO, has not indicated whether he will mount a legal challenge to the Indian order.