India Seeks Removal of Jack Dorsey’s Offline Messaging App Bitchat

India’s Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has directed GitHub to remove pages containing the source code of Bitchat, a decentralised messaging application developed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The request became public on Friday and has renewed discussions about encrypted communication, state surveillance and the extent to which governments can regulate technologies that function beyond traditional internet networks.

Dorsey confirmed the development in a post on X, where he shared images of the communication and wrote: “The govt of India is making demands for this tech to be shut down.”

His post brought wider attention to Bitchat, which had previously been known largely among technology enthusiasts.

The takedown request emerged shortly after claims that mobile internet services were disrupted during protests in Delhi on Thursday. The alleged shutdown has intensified concerns about how the authorities manage digital access during periods of civil unrest.

Bitchat was launched in July last year as what Dorsey described as a weekend experiment. He explained that the project was created to test technologies such as Bluetooth mesh networks, store-and-forward communication systems and encryption.

Writing on the application’s GitHub forum, Dorsey said the original idea was straightforward: to allow people within the same vicinity to exchange text messages without having to share phone numbers or email addresses. He compared the concept to FireChat, an earlier peer-to-peer messaging application that used Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct.

Unlike platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, Bitchat does not depend entirely on mobile data or a stable internet connection. Instead, it uses Bluetooth Low Energy to create a mesh network in which each connected device can operate as both a sender and a relay.

Messages can be delivered directly to nearby users or passed through several devices until they reach their intended destination. This multi-hop system can extend communication beyond the normal Bluetooth range, although its effectiveness depends on the number of active users within a particular area.

Bitchat also provides a considerable level of anonymity because users do not need to register with a phone number or another personal identifier when using its Bluetooth function.

Its developers describe the platform as having a “dual-transport architecture.” It combines Bluetooth mesh technology with the Nostr protocol, an open system for decentralised social networking, to support internet-based communication whenever connectivity becomes available.

The application was designed to maintain communication during natural disasters, major public gatherings and extended network outages, when ordinary internet infrastructure may become unavailable.

However, the same features that make Bitchat resistant to network disruptions appear to have attracted the attention of Indian security agencies. The reported concerns relate to the application’s ability to operate beyond lawful interception systems commonly used by investigators to identify and trace suspects.

The dispute has therefore placed Bitchat at the centre of a broader debate over how far governments should be permitted to control technologies deliberately designed to function without centralised infrastructure.