India Orders Apple and Google to Pull Jack Dorsey's Bitchat

Apple and Google have pulled Jack Dorsey's decentralized messaging app Bitchat from their app stores in India, acting on a government order issued under Section 69A of the country's Information Technology Act.

Dorsey disclosed the removal Saturday. He posted on X a notice from Apple stating that India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had demanded the takedown under Section 69A, 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. Access through Apple's TestFlight beta-testing service would also be blocked within the country.

When TechCrunch checked on Saturday, Bitchat was no longer available for download through Google Play in India either. The app's website was also inaccessible across various internet service providers in the country. It remained unclear whether Google and the ISPs had received directives from the federal government.

Apple, Google, and India's IT ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The takedown marks the second time in less than a year that New Delhi has moved against the open-source software. In July 2026, Dorsey revealed that Indian authorities had ordered GitHub to take down repositories associated with the app. That order raised questions among digital rights advocates and legal experts about the legal basis for restricting software based on its functionality.

The government's order to GitHub said Bitchat's architecture made it hard for law enforcement agencies to intercept communications or trace users. It also cited the app's ability to continue operating during internet shutdowns. The July order relied on a provision of India's information technology law dealing with intermediaries and their liability for third-party content — a different legal basis from Section 69A, which Apple cited in its latest notice.

How Bitchat works

Launched in July last year, Bitchat uses Bluetooth mesh networking to let nearby devices exchange encrypted messages without relying on cellular networks, internet access, or centralized servers. That design is precisely what has drawn the Indian government's attention: the app functions when the state pulls the plug on the internet.

The stakes are not theoretical. India is experiencing a fresh wave of youth-led protests over changes to the country's voter rolls. Police detained several people during demonstrations in New Delhi on Saturday, as protesters demanded the resignation of India's chief election commissioner over alleged manipulation of electoral rolls. Authorities suspended internet services around New Delhi's Jantar Mantar for 12 hours on Friday during protests there.

During July's protests, demonstrators reportedly turned to Bitchat and rival app Briar after authorities cut internet services.

The numbers show how sharply demand tracked the unrest. India accounted for about 85% of Bitchat's global downloads between July 17 and July 23, up from roughly 1% in the previous 30 days, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Rights groups push back

The Internet Freedom Foundation, a New Delhi-based digital rights advocacy group, called the latest order unconstitutional. The group argues that Section 69A allows the government to block unlawful information — not a messaging app because of its ability to operate during internet shutdowns.

The organization also noted that neither the blocking order nor the allegedly illegal content cited as the basis for the action had been made public.

For Apple and Google, the episode is another test of their position in a market where compliance with local takedown demands is the price of distribution. Apple's notice itself drew the line clearly: the app stays up everywhere else, comes down in India, and loses its TestFlight channel there as well.

For Dorsey, the conflict fits a pattern. The Block co-founder has repeatedly positioned Bitchat as infrastructure beyond state control, and New Delhi has now moved against it through three separate channels — GitHub, the app stores, and the ISPs. The open-source code, however, remains distributable outside the platforms that have bent to the order, and the Bluetooth mesh design means the app can keep running on devices that already have it, shutdown or no shutdown.