India's top cybercrime agency has ordered GitHub to take down repositories for Bitchat, the offline messaging application built by Block CEO and bitcoin advocate Jack Dorsey, as anti-government protesters in Delhi adopt mesh-networking tools to communicate through state-imposed internet shutdowns.
The order, issued by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, names three GitHub repositories tied to the application and gave the Microsoft-owned platform three hours to disable access.
The Technology Behind Bitchat
Bitchat is a decentralized messaging application that relays encrypted messages between phones using Bluetooth mesh networks. It requires no internet connection, no servers, and no user accounts. Messages hop from device to device until they reach their intended recipient, creating a communication channel that operates entirely outside traditional telecommunications infrastructure.
The app also supports bitcoin transactions. Users can construct and sign bitcoin payments on their devices, then pass them through the Bluetooth mesh until a phone with internet connectivity broadcasts the transaction to the network. This architecture is designed to keep payments functional during blackouts, natural disasters, or government-imposed shutdowns.
Dorsey released Bitchat as open-source software in July 2025, making the code freely available for anyone to inspect, modify, and redistribute.
The Protest Context
Since July 20, cities across India have witnessed some of the largest demonstrations in years. Student protesters organized under the banner of the "Cockroach Janta Party" — a satirical jab at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party — have rallied against a national exam scandal. The government response has included tear gas, baton charges, and repeated internet suspensions around protest sites in New Delhi.
Researchers have documented demonstrators turning to Bluetooth mesh applications, including Bitchat, to maintain coordination once internet connectivity is severed. The takedown order specifically targets one of the tools that made the shutdowns easier to circumvent.
Legal and Technical Ramifications
The notice from the Home Ministry agency states that Bitchat's architecture "significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution, and investigation by law enforcement agencies." The app enables anonymous communication without registration, phone numbers, or centralized logging — features that privacy advocates consider essential for free expression and that governments consider obstacles to surveillance.
Whether GitHub complied with the three-hour deadline remains unclear. The application was still available on both Google Play and Apple's App Store as of Friday afternoon in Asia. Open-source projects are typically mirrored across multiple hosting platforms, meaning that a takedown on GitHub rarely eliminates the code entirely.
The order places GitHub in a familiar position. The platform has previously removed repositories under Indian legal orders, and the company has historically complied with legitimate government requests while facing criticism from digital rights organizations for doing so.
The Bitcoin Dimension
For bitcoin's proponents, the situation in India represents a real-world test of the cryptocurrency's core value proposition: the ability to transact without permission from any government or intermediary. Bitchat's offline bitcoin transaction relay demonstrates how cryptocurrency infrastructure can be designed to operate even when traditional internet access is restricted.
The case also highlights the tension between decentralized technologies and state control — a conflict that is likely to intensify as more countries deploy internet shutdowns as a tool for managing civil unrest. India alone has ordered more than 500 internet shutdowns since 2012, according to the Software Freedom Law Center's tracker, making it one of the most frequent users of the tactic globally.