Bitchat Removed from Apple's India App Store Following Government Order
Jack Dorsey's decentralized messaging application, Bitchat, has been removed from Apple's App Store in India following an order from the Indian government. The app also became unavailable on Google Play in India on Saturday, October 3, 2026, according to TechCrunch.
Dorsey, the app's developer and co-founder of Twitter, stated on Saturday that the Indian government had ordered Apple to remove Bitchat from its App Store in the country. "Government of India officially removes Bitchat from the App Store," Dorsey wrote in a post, which included a screenshot of a notice from Apple's App Review team, according to NDTV.
The notice from Apple, which Dorsey posted on X, indicated that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued the demand under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. This section serves as the country’s primary legal provision for government-ordered online blocking, TechCrunch reported.
Bitchat's website was also inaccessible across various internet service providers in India on Saturday. It was not immediately clear whether Google and internet service providers had received similar directions from the federal government, TechCrunch reported.
Details and Background of the Restrictions
Apple's notice specified that Bitchat would continue to be available on its App Store outside of India. However, access to the app through its TestFlight beta-testing service would also be blocked within the country, according to TechCrunch.
Bitchat, launched in July 2025, is designed to operate without an internet connection. It utilizes Bluetooth mesh networking to enable nearby devices to exchange encrypted messages without relying on cellular networks, internet access, or centralized servers, TechCrunch reported.
The latest restrictions follow months of efforts by New Delhi to limit access to the open-source software. In July 2026, Dorsey revealed that Indian authorities had ordered GitHub to take down repositories associated with the messaging app. That previous order from the Indian government to GitHub cited Bitchat's architecture, stating it made it difficult for law enforcement agencies to intercept communications or trace users. It also highlighted the app's ability to continue functioning during internet shutdowns, TechCrunch reported.
The July 2026 order relied on a provision of India’s information technology law concerning intermediaries and their liability for third-party content. This differs from Section 69A, which was cited in Apple’s latest notice, TechCrunch noted.
The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a New Delhi-based digital rights advocacy group, has called the latest order unconstitutional. The IFF argued that Section 69A permits the government to block unlawful information but not a messaging app solely because of its capability to operate during internet shutdowns. The foundation also stated that neither the blocking order nor the allegedly illegal content cited as the basis for the action had been made public, according to TechCrunch.
Context Amidst Protests and Internet Suspensions
The removal of Bitchat from app stores in India comes as the country experiences a new wave of youth-led protests over changes to the country’s voter rolls, TechCrunch reported.
On Saturday, police detained several individuals during demonstrations in New Delhi. Protesters demanded the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner, citing alleged manipulation of electoral rolls. Authorities had suspended internet services around New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for 12 hours on Friday during protests there, TechCrunch reported.
During protests in July 2026, demonstrators reportedly turned to Bitchat and a rival app, Briar, after authorities suspended internet services. Interest in Bitchat surged in India around that time. Data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower showed that India accounted for approximately 85% of the app’s global downloads between July 17 and July 23, 2026. This marked a significant increase from roughly 1% in the previous 30 days, according to TechCrunch.
