Preparing for disruption: Offline messaging apps join India’s protest toolkit
- On Thursday, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre ordered GitHub to remove Bitchat, the decentralized messaging app developed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, within 3 hours citing security risks.
- Demonstrators under the Cockroach Janta Party banner have increasingly adopted Bitchat to coordinate during government-imposed internet shutdowns at protest sites in New Delhi.
- The I4C notice alleges Bitchat's design "significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution and investigation by law enforcement agencies" by enabling anonymous communication without centralized servers or user registration.
- On Friday, Dorsey shared the notice on X, stating, "The Government of India does not like technologies like Bitchat and wants it taken down."
- While GitHub faces the removal order, the app remains accessible via over 2,000 forks on the platform and was previously removed from the China App Store for similar concerns.
57 Articles
57 Articles
India's Takedown Order on Jack Dorsey's Offline Messenger Tests Limits of Tech Control
Jack Dorsey shared a government notice on X that ordered GitHub to pull three repositories tied to Bitchat. The move came fast. Dated July 23 and issued by India’s Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, it gave Microsoft-owned GitHub three hours to act. The app in question relies on Bluetooth mesh networks. It lets users trade encrypted messages and even relay bitcoin transactions without any internet connection, servers or user accounts. But authorit…
India orders GitHub to remove Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat repositories
India’s cybercrime authority has ordered GitHub to remove three repositories linked to Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat messaging app within three hours. According to a July 23 notice shared by Dorsey on X, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre directed the Microsoft-owned…
Cointelegraph
The New York LedgerIndia’s IFF Calls BitChat GitHub Takedown Unconstitutional
India’s Internet Freedom Foundation says a government order to remove Jack Dorsey’s BitChat repositories from GitHub is unconstitutional and exceeds legal authority.
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