India's takedown notice against Bitchat opens a fight over open-source law

Jack Dorsey posted on X what he said was a notice from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (the country’s interior ministry) ordering GitHub to restrict access to three repositories for Bitchat, his offline, Bluetooth-based messaging app, within three hours. The notice argues that Bitchat’s anonymous, decentralized design could facilitate unlawful activity and let users communicate during internet shutdowns while making lawful interception more difficult. Dated July 23 and apparently issued by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a unit under the Home Ministry, it does not identify any specific illegal post, message, or repository — instead arguing that the app’s ability to keep functioning during shutdowns could itself enable unlawful activity.

The move comes as Indian authorities tighten internet restrictions amid weeks of student-led protests in New Delhi over alleged examination-paper leaks. The demonstrations, known as the “cockroach” movement, have drawn thousands of young people demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, with authorities also restricting marches toward parliament. Local media reported that some protesters downloaded offline messaging apps, including Bitchat and Briar, after internet services were suspended. Market-intelligence provider Sensor Tower shared data showing India accounted for about 85% of Bitchat’s global downloads between July 17 and July 23, up from about 1% over the previous 30 days; the app was downloaded more than 91,000 times in India over five days, with downloads jumping thirty-two-fold on July 19 from the day before, and its daily active users in India reaching more than 330,000 on Thursday — the highest level yet recorded for the app in the country.

Mishi Choudhary, founder of digital-rights legal group SFLC.in, said the document resembles the format of recent government takedown notices but cites legal provisions that do not clearly authorize removing an entire software project over how it works, rather than any specific illegal content — a departure from India’s pre-2021 practice of relying on Section 69A of the IT Act and the 2009 Blocking Rules. The Internet Freedom Foundation argued the order fails on its own terms, since deleting a repository does not remove the app from phones that already carry it, and the mesh network keeps functioning without servers; what the takedown actually prevents, the group said, is scrutiny of the underlying code. Raman Chima of the Association for Progressive Communications said the notice goes further than targeting Bitchat itself, arguing that open-source development of this kind of product “should not occur.”

GitHub did not confirm receiving the document, and the repositories remained accessible from India as of Friday; the company pointed to its public log of government takedown requests, which showed nothing recent tied to Bitchat. GitHub’s principal online safety counsel, Rose Coogan, said the company notifies affected account owners and gives them a chance to appeal when it receives a complete government takedown request, and that it publishes every request it acts on. Access Now’s Namrata Maheshwari warned that blocking an offline messaging tool during an internet shutdown risks turning that shutdown into a communication blackout that violates fundamental rights. India’s Home Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Why it matters

The dispute tests whether a government can order the takedown of open-source code itself — rather than any specific illegal content — a precedent that could extend well beyond India to any decentralized tool built to keep working once networks go dark.