India’s Move to Block Jack Dorsey’s BitChat Triggers Backlash Over Open-Source and Free Speech Rights
India’s prominent digital rights advocate, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), has denounced a government directive ordering open-source platform GitHub to remove source code repositories for BitChat, an encrypted peer-to-peer messaging application created by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The emergency takedown notice, issued by India’s national cybercrime agency, gave GitHub just three hours to restrict access to three repositories associated with BitChat. Indian authorities justified the demand by claiming that the software’s architecture enables users to circumvent state-imposed internet blackouts, evade lawful government surveillance, and potentially facilitate illegal activities.
Rejecting the government’s stance, the IFF stated that the order bypasses established legal mechanisms. Rather than invoking Section 69A of India’s Information Technology Act—which governs official content blocking and provides procedural safeguards, including notice and review rights—authorities relied on Section 79(3)(b). This legal clause, traditionally used to strip online intermediaries of liability protection if they fail to remove unlawful content, was allegedly misapplied to force open-source software code offline without identifying specific illegal material. According to digital rights organizations monitoring global censorship, invoking safe-harbor removal mechanisms against raw programming code creates serious risks for global software platforms.
BitChat operates using localized mesh networking, transmitting encrypted messages directly between devices via Bluetooth protocols rather than relying on centralized cloud servers or active telecommunication networks. Released in July 2025, the tool quickly emerged as a critical communication channel in regions experiencing political instability, severe weather emergencies, or government-mandated communications cutoffs.
Software of this nature has seen rapid adoption during civil unrest and infrastructure collapse, with download spikes previously recorded in nations such as Iran, Uganda, Nepal, Madagascar, and Jamaica. Offline mesh messaging technologies have historically gained traction during mass demonstrations, where traditional cellular networks are either overloaded or deliberately disabled by authorities seeking to restrict public assembly and information flow.
The rights group cautioned that targeting underlying source code sets a dangerous legal precedent for developers and open-source software platforms globally. In addition to demanding the immediate revocation of the takedown order, the IFF has called on the Indian government to make public all executive orders issued under Section 79(3)(b) to maintain transparency in digital governance.
