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India issued takedown notice on Bluetooth chat app ‘Bitchat’, says Dorsey
The post comes as authorities have repeatedly suspended mobile internet services around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, where protests have been underway.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on Friday claimed that the Indian government wants his Bluetooth-based messaging app Bitchat taken down, sharing what appears to be an official government order by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Union ministry of home affairs, directing GitHub to remove access to the app’s source code.
“The government of India does not like technologies like Bitchat and wants it taken down,” Dorsey wrote on X. The screenshots shared by Dorsey show a notice dated July 23, purportedly issued by the I4C. The order directs GitHub to remove or disable access to three repositories related to Bitchat within three hours.
Why the post?
The post comes as authorities have repeatedly suspended mobile internet services around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, where protests have been underway for several days.
The government has issued six internet shutdown orders over the past five days, directing telecom service providers to block mobile internet within a 1.5-km radius of the protest site until Friday midnight. No extension order beyond July 24 midnight had been issued till Friday evening, according to people aware of the matter.
The government targeted Bitchat as protesters turned to it to stay connected amid the internet shutdown at Jantar Mantar following repeated mobile internet suspensions. Unlike conventional messaging apps, Bitchat does not require an internet connection. Instead, it uses Bluetooth to create a mesh network that allows nearby devices to exchange messages directly.
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‘Makes interception, investigation’ difficult
The I4C’s notice says Bitchat’s architecture makes lawful interception, attribution and investigations by law enforcement agencies significantly more difficult. It says decentralised communication platforms could be exploited by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised crime groups and cybercriminals.
The government has not publicly commented on the claims or confirmed the notice. GitHub had also not publicly responded at the time of writing.
