India’s move against Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat has sparked a legal controversy

The Indian government’s apparent effort to take the GitHub repositories of the Bluetooth messaging app Bitchat offline has raised questions about the legal basis for targeting open source software because of how it works.

The Bitchat issue came to light after Dorsey posted on X on Friday what he said was a notice from the Indian Home Ministry directing GitHub to restrict access to three Bitchat repositories within three hours. The notice argues that the app’s anonymous, decentralized structure could facilitate illegal activity and allow users to communicate during internet shutdowns while making legal interception more difficult.

The move comes as Indian authorities tighten restrictions on the internet after weeks of student-led protests in New Delhi over alleged leaks of exam papers.

The demonstrations, known as the “Cockroach” movement, attracted thousands of young people demanding the resignation of Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while the authorities also imposed restrictions on marches towards Parliament. Local media reported that some protesters downloaded offline messaging apps, including Bitchat and Briar, after internet services were suspended.

The order represents a new approach for the Indian government, which, before 2021, typically relied on Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and Blocking Rules of 2009 when it wanted to remove content nationwide, according to Mishi Chaudhary, founder of SFLC.in, an Indian digital legal rights advocacy group.

She told TechCrunch that the document is similar to the format of recent government takedown notices, but the legal provisions it cites do not clearly allow authorities to seek to remove an entire software project because of how it works rather than any specific illegal content.

Unlike many government takedown requests, the document shared by Dorsey does not identify specific posts, messages or repositories containing illegal material. Instead, it says Bitchat’s ability to operate during internet shutdowns and without central servers could facilitate illegal activity.

The notice, dated July 23 and apparently issued by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C), which operates under the Indian Home Ministry, said Bitchat enables users to communicate “even during network restrictions” and “internet shutdowns,” making it possible to “circumvent legal restrictions” while hindering “lawful interception, attribution and tracking.”

In recent days, Bitchat has seen a sharp rise in popularity in India. Market intelligence provider Sensor Tower shared data with TechCrunch that showed India accounted for about 85% of global downloads of the app between July 17 and July 23, compared to about 1% over the previous 30 days. Bitchat has been downloaded more than 91,000 times in India over the past five days, after downloads jumped 32-fold on July 19 compared to the previous day. The number of daily active users of the app in India reached more than 330,000 on Thursday, the highest level on record for the app in the country.

The request raises questions about open source software

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a New Delhi-based digital rights advocacy group, questioned the effectiveness of the clear takedown request.

“The request also fails on its own terms, as deleting the repository does not delete the app from any phone that carries it, and the network continues to operate without servers. What the takedown actually prevents is scrutiny of the underlying code,” the group said on X’s website.

Raman Cheema, global program director at the Association for Progressive Communications, a global digital rights network, told TechCrunch that the apparent notice went beyond targeting the messaging service itself by seeking to remove its open source code from GitHub.

“They are [the Indian government] “They’re not just targeting the particular service provider, but they’re trying to say that open source development for this type of product… shouldn’t happen,” he said.

GitHub has not confirmed whether it has received the document. Warehouses remained available from India on Friday. When asked about the clear notice, the company shared a link to its public repository of government takedown requests, which did not contain any recent requests related to Bitchat.

Blocking the offline messaging platform during internet restrictions threatens to turn lockdowns into a “communications blackout” that violates basic rights, Namrata Maheshwari, senior policy advisor at digital rights group Access Now, told TechCrunch. She said that demonstrators in any democracy have the right to communicate privately and coordinate peacefully.

“When we receive a full government takedown request, we notify affected account holders and give them an opportunity to appeal,” Rose Cogan, the company’s principal online safety advisor, said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. “We publicly share every government takedown request we take action on.”

The Indian Home Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.