India Orders GitHub to Remove Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat App Amid Offline Messaging Concerns

• An order was issued by India to GitHub to delete repositories of Bitchat made by Jack Dorsey.
• The reason given was that it was a concern regarding anonymous offline Bluetooth messaging.
• Mesh messaging applications were used by protesters when internet connectivity was shut down in New Delhi.

India has become vigilant about decentralized communication technology after issuing an order to GitHub to disable Bitchat, an offline communication tool developed by Jack Dorsey. This happened when protesters were resorting to using Bluetooth mesh communication technology amid internet shutdowns in protest areas.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, issued the takedown notice under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. Authorities directed GitHub to block access to the three repositories associated with the app within three hours after receiving notice. They said the anonymous nature of the app makes it difficult to intercept, attribute, and investigate. Mainly due to a lack of registration, telephone numbers, server, and logs by the users.

The Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey had released Bitchat as an open-source application in July 2025. Where the app works on an encrypted Bluetooth mesh networking system only. The application does not use an internet connection but connects two devices to send encrypted messages to each other.

Offline Bitcoin Transfers Draw Regulatory Attention

Apart from secure communications, Bitchat also provides Bitcoin transactions offline using the Bluetooth mesh technology. The application relays transaction data from one device to another until a connected device broadcasts it to the Bitcoin network. Developers designed the feature to support payments during natural disasters, connectivity issues, and internet outages.

This has been seen by many as improving resilience in communications and ensuring financial decentralization even during periods of connectivity issues. It is, however, claimed by regulators that such a system makes the traditional monitoring framework difficult to use because the users cannot be monitored easily.

Internet Shutdowns Promote Mesh Networks Usage

Following the student-led protests initiated throughout India on July 20, the government has imposed numerous internet shutdowns near the protest areas in New Delhi. With connectivity levels decreasing, the protestors started using Bluetooth mesh network applications such as Bitchat. On its part, GitHub did not confirm whether the company had met the Indian government’s demands for removal of the code within three hours. The Bitchat app was still accessible on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Even after deleting repositories on GitHub, mirrors can retain the source code.

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