India orders GitHub to take down Dorsey’s Bitchat app amid Delhi protests

India's top cybercrime agency has ordered Microsoft ↘ 3.58%-owned GitHub to take down repositories for Bitchat, the decentralized messaging app created by Jack Dorsey, as protesters in Delhi turn to mesh-networking tools to communicate through repeated internet shutdowns.

The Takedown Order

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), part of the Home Ministry, issued the order late on Thursday, July 23, under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, targeting three GitHub repositories tied to Bitchat and giving the platform three hours to disable access. The notice, reviewed by CoinDesk, states that the app enables anonymous communication without registration, phone numbers, or centralized logging, and that its architecture "significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution, and investigation by law enforcement agencies".digg+2

Bitchat is a peer-to-peer encrypted messaging application that relays messages between phones over Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks, requiring no internet connection, servers, or user accounts. Dorsey released it as open-source software in July 2025. The app also integrates the Nostr protocol for internet-based messaging and can relay Bitcoin ↘ 0.54% transactions offline, passing them phone to phone until a device with connectivity broadcasts them to the network.coindesk+3

Protests and Internet Shutdowns

The order comes against the backdrop of sustained protests in central Delhi. Thousands gathered at Jantar Mantar beginning July 20 for the Cockroach Janta Party's "Chalo Sansad" march, prompting the government to order telecom providers including Airtel, Jio, and Vi to suspend mobile internet services in parts of central Delhi. Internet access was cut off at the Jantar Mantar protest site from at least 8:30 PM on July 21 and remained suspended as protests entered their third day on July 23, with reports of clashes between demonstrators and security forces.hindustantimes+1

According to the Software Freedom Law Centre's internet shutdown tracker, India has recorded 24 internet shutdowns so far in 2026. As connectivity was severed, protesters adopted Bitchat and similar mesh tools to coordinate, drawing the government's attention to the application.coindesk+1

Open-Source Resilience

The Internet Freedom Foundation condemned the order on July 24, calling it "unconstitutional and authoritarian". Digital rights observers and developers note that because Bitchat is released under the MIT open-source license and its code has already been widely mirrored, the takedown is unlikely to eliminate access to the software. As one commenter on a developer forum put it, "GitHub will not take down the repo, they'll just block access to it from India. It's open source — you can't ban it".x+1