India tells GitHub to kill Bitchat repos in 3 hours; Dorsey says gov "does not like" offline talk 🛑

India's Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has ordered GitHub to remove three repositories of Bitchat, Jack Dorsey's open-source Bluetooth mesh messaging app, within three hours, according to Notice No. 11072601011432 issued July 23, 2026 by the agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The notice targeted the main Bitchat project, its Android build and the Android releases page under the "permissionlesstech" account, invoking Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000 read with Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021, and directing GitHub to "remove and disable access" to the code without vitiating any evidence. Dorsey, the former Twitter chief and Block CEO, disclosed the order on X on July 24, 2026, writing that "the government of india does not like technologies like bitchat and wants it taken down."

I4C justified the takedown by arguing Bitchat's peer-to-peer design "significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution, and investigation" and could be exploited during "public disorder, riots, terrorism, organized crime, or internet shutdowns," citing provisions of the IT Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The app routes encrypted messages between nearby phones over Bluetooth Low Energy with no internet, no mobile network, no phone numbers and no central servers, a setup that has drawn protesters, disaster responders and users in countries including Madagascar, Nepal, Uganda, Jamaica and Iran since its July 2025 release. The order comes as mobile internet was suspended within a 1.5 km radius around Jantar Mantar and parts of Connaught Place in Central Delhi during student protests over NEET 2026 examination irregularities, with demonstrators camping in the capital since June behind the satirically named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledging fast-track courts for officials accused of rigging exams.

The Internet Freedom Foundation condemned the order as "unconstitutional and authoritarian," saying it named no unlawful content and bypassed India's formal website-blocking procedures, which include procedural safeguards under Section 69A of the IT Act. The group urged the government to withdraw the notice and publish all takedown orders issued under Section 79(3)(b), and noted that removing repositories cannot disable copies of Bitchat already installed on users' phones. The Bitchat Community account responded on X that "Governments that fear people talking without permission will always go after the tools that make it possible."

India is not the first state to act against the app. In April, Apple removed Bitchat from its China App Store at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China, which said the peer-to-peer messaging service violated regulations governing "Internet-based Information Services With Attribute of Public Opinions of Capable of Social Mobilization," the same 2018 framework used in Beijing's 2023 ban on Dorsey's Nostr-based Damus. Open-source code, however, can be freely copied and mirrored, and the Bitchat project said hours after the Indian crackdown that new repositories had already appeared on GitHub.