Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat disappears from app stores in India after government order
Jack Dorsey's decentralized messaging app, Bitchat, has been removed from Apple and Google app stores in India following a government order. The Indian government cited concerns over the app's architecture, which prevents law enforcement from intercepting communications or tracing users.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing tension between decentralized technology and government efforts to maintain surveillance and control over digital communications.
Bitchat, Jack Dorsey’s decentralized messaging app designed to work without an internet connection, has disappeared from Apple and Google’s app stores in India, months after New Delhi first sought to restrict access to the open-source software.
Dorsey said Saturday that the Indian government had ordered Apple to remove Bitchat from its App Store in the country. In a notice from Apple that Dorsey posted on X, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued the demand under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, the country’s primary legal provision for government-ordered online blocking.
Apple’s notice said Bitchat would remain available on its App Store outside India. However, access to the app through its TestFlight beta-testing service would also be blocked in the country.
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