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Bitchat Removed from Apple's India App Store Following MeitY Demand, Says Jack Dorsey
- •Apple removed the Bitchat offline messaging application from its India App Store after a demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), according to Jack Dorsey.
- •Dorsey, Bitchat's developer and Twitter co-founder, shared Apple's App Review communication on X, stating the Indian government officially removed the app.
- •Apple's notice cited Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and stated the app contained material considered illegal in India, thus not meeting Apple's App Review requirements.
- •The removal is limited to Apple's India App Store; Bitchat remains available in other territories, and its TestFlight version will no longer be accessible in India.
- •This action follows earlier government intervention in July, when the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) directed GitHub to remove Bitchat due to concerns about its decentralized nature and potential misuse during protests.
Key Questions Answered
Apple removed Bitchat from its India App Store following a demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, citing that the app contained material considered illegal in India and failed to meet App Review requirements.
In July, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) directed GitHub to remove Bitchat repositories. This action followed the use of the Bluetooth-based messaging app by protesters during demonstrations organized by the Cockroach Janata Party at Jantar Mandir in New Delhi to bypass temporary internet restrictions.
Bitchat is a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that uses Bluetooth mesh networking. It allows nearby mobile devices to connect directly without mobile networks, internet connections, or central servers, with each device acting as a relay to pass messages along the network.
