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n intensifying dispute between India’s authorities in charge of cybercrime investigations and a communication app has entered a new stage: Bitchat has introduced a special function allowing the app to proliferate from one phone to another independently of GitHub, app stores, and the Internet as such.
This decision was made following a direct request for the code to be removed from GitHub.
India’s Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) – an office run under the aegis of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs – on July 23, 2026, instructed Microsoft-owned GitHub to block access to three repositories for Bitchat – the open source Bluetooth mesh messaging application developed by Block founder Jack Dorsey. I4C, citing Section 79(3)(b) of India’s Information Technology Act, 2000 and Rule 3(1)(d) of IT Rules 2021, ordered GitHub to do so with a three-hour window to oblige.
Two out of these three URLs related to the Android version of this application—the Bitchat-Android repository and its Release Page, from where the APK can be sideloaded with signing. According to authorities, the decentralized nature of the application, combined with no need for registration, poses serious challenges regarding intercepting communications lawfully and performing a proper investigation.
Also, there were fears expressed over potential use of the Bitchat app for organizing assemblies of unlawful character in times of public disturbance or circulating misleading information.
Notice was posted by Jack Dorsey himself on his profile of social platform X on July 24. Therein he stated that the Indian government is simply against all kinds of decentralized technologies. Millions of views were recorded in the first few days since the posting. It is yet unclear if and when GitHub managed to comply within the given deadline.
The order was issued in the context of youth protests against leaks in examination papers, with protesters gathering near Delhi’s Jantar Mantar ever since June. Digital rights activists monitoring the situation say that the Ministry of Home Affairs has shut off mobile internet near the protest site about five times since mid-July, the latest time involving shutting it down for almost one and a half kilometers from the site and only during the period between late afternoon and midnight on the very same day as the notice to takedown the app was issued.
As mobile network connections were cut off, protesters started switching to Bluetooth-based mesh tools like Bitchat to organize their efforts without using any cellular or wireless internet connection.
Since Bitchat utilizes only Bluetooth Low Energy technology to exchange encrypted messages from device to device directly, it is working even during the internet shutdown ordered by the state.
However, the nature of the design of Bitchat made any attempt to execute the notice virtually impossible. First of all, it should be noted that the application is distributed in accordance with open-source principles – it has a free and permissive license which means that simply blocking certain URLs from GitHub will not make it impossible for anyone to access the source codes of the application. Also, there is a rumor that developers have already transferred their files to another platform (Codeberg or GitLab) and at least 3000 public repositories for Bitchat existed before issuing this order.
What is even more interesting, one of the newest features of the application allows Android users to transfer the installation file directly via Wi-Fi Direct (or similar technologies used for this type of file sharing), which makes it possible for people who own the app to transfer the file to other devices without the use of GitHub or any kind of internet connection at all.
Thus, users can transfer the app in the same way as they receive messages through it, from one device to another without relying on any centralized distribution channels.
This feature makes it clear how ineffective the decision to shut down the application in this way can be.
According to Namrata Maheshwari, Asia Pacific Policy Manager of Access Now, the blocking of an offline messaging platform amid an internet outage would result in the total communication black-out which violates the rights protesters have regardless of the unrest period.
In addition, the notice received by Dorsey does not include information about particular unlawful posts, which is common for many government notices related to takedowns. Instead, it mentions only the application's architecture which adds to legal criticism against the takedown order.
The Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian-based digital rights protection organization, described the takedown order as unconstitutional and authoritarian one because it does not include any permission provided in accordance with Section 79(3)(b) by the Supreme Court judgment Shreya Singhal, anticipating misuse of a certain communications instrument cannot be grounds for blocking it, and imposing the three-hours compliance period overnight makes impossible any kind of legal defense before performing the action.
Notably, this is far from the first time that the Bitchat app experienced a dramatic rise in usage amidst the political situation in the country. In Nepal, for instance, Bitchat downloads exceeded 48,000 within the framework of anti-government corruption protests which were accompanied by the temporary blocking of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
In both instances, we see how the same pattern emerges: when authorities prohibit the use of the traditional online forms of communication, people start using the offline-first technology.
