India moves to block Jack Dorsey's offline app amid protest fears

India moved to have GitHub remove repositories hosting Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat app, a decentralized peer-to-peer messenger that works over Bluetooth mesh networks without internet access, servers or phone numbers. The request put an offline communications tool at the center of a fight over how far the state can reach into open-source software during unrest.

The Union home ministry issued the directive, and the government said Bluetooth mesh messaging apps could be misused to coordinate unlawful assemblies and protests. The notice was issued close to midnight on July 23, and Jack Dorsey said India wanted Bitchat removed and shared the government notice.

Bitchat’s rise in India came against the backdrop of protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, where mobile data and network disruptions reportedly pushed demonstrators toward offline, Bluetooth-based tools. The app’s design, which avoids internet infrastructure entirely, made it attractive in a setting where connectivity itself had become a point of pressure.

The dispute has already moved beyond a single app. Indian tech-policy coverage has framed the takedown effort as a possible precedent for other software companies and digital tools, raising the question of whether the government has clear authority to order code-hosting platforms to block or remove repositories in this way. That debate carries obvious weight for protest movements that depend on low-friction communications and for developers who build encryption-adjacent tools meant to function outside centralized control.

The confrontation also extends a familiar standoff between Dorsey and Indian authorities. In 2023, Dorsey alleged that India had threatened to shut Twitter and raid employees’ homes, and earlier disputes over India’s internet and social-media rules had already drawn criticism from rights and tech-policy observers. This latest move against Bitchat places those tensions inside a new legal test: whether a government can suppress software by leaning on the platform where its code lives.