Amid Protests, Jack Dorsey Says Centre Ordered Removal Of Chat App Bitchat
The Indian government has ordered the removal of the Bluetooth-based messaging app Bitchat from GitHub, citing risks of misuse by criminal and anti-national elements. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey criticized the move, highlighting the government's opposition to decentralized communication technologies.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing tension between state efforts to control information flow during civil unrest and the development of decentralized, censorship-resistant communication tools.
Home ministry's cybercrime arm, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, has ordered Microsoft subsidiary GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based messaging application Bitchat, according to a notice."The Government of India does not like technologies like Bitchat and wants it taken down," said the app's developer and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Friday in an X post, sharing a copy of the notice dated July 23.A query sent to I4C in this regard elicited no immediate reply.In its notice, I4C said that the app enables communication even during network restrictions and creates a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups and cyber criminals seeking to evade lawful detection and continue communication despite legally imposed restrictions.While giving reference to Bitchat, I4C said that the content hosted or published by the GitHub intermediary platform is prohibited by law or being used to commit an unlawful act.
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