Jack Dorsey's Bitchat vanishes from app stores in India

Decentralized messaging application Bitchat has been removed from Apple's App Store in India following a directive issued by the country's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The demand was enforced under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which serves as India's primary legal framework for government-mandated online blocking orders.

According to an official notice from Apple shared by Jack Dorsey on X, Bitchat will remain accessible on App Stores outside of Indian territory. However, access to the application via the TestFlight beta-testing platform has been blocked domestically as well. Furthermore, checks conducted on Google Play revealed that the app is no longer available for download in India, while Bitchat's official website remains blocked across multiple internet service providers within the nation, with no immediate confirmation whether Google or local ISPs received formal federal directives.

Launched in July of the previous year, Bitchat utilizes Bluetooth mesh networking architecture to enable nearby mobile devices to exchange encrypted messages independently of cellular networks, internet connectivity, or centralized servers. In July 2026, Dorsey previously disclosed that Indian authorities had similarly compelled GitHub to take down code repositories associated with the open-source messaging tool, sparking debates among digital rights advocates regarding the legal boundaries of restricting software based purely on its technical capabilities.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

The Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights advocacy organization based in New Delhi, criticized the latest takedown order as unconstitutional. The group argued that Section 69A empowers the government to block unlawful information rather than banning an entire messaging application simply because it functions during internet shutdowns. They also noted that neither the blocking directive nor the specific unlawful content cited as justification has been made publicly available.