Govt Blocking of BitChat's Code on GitHub Unconstitutional and Authoritarian: Internet Freedom Foundation |
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New Delhi: The Union home ministry on July 23 directed Github, a developer platform, to remove repositories hosting Bitchat, a Bluetooth-based messaging app developed by X founder Jack Dorsey. The move came as protesters at Jantar Mantar – where the government had shut down mobile internet – had just begun using it for communication.
“The government of India does not like technologies like bitchat and wants it taken down,” Dorsey wrote in a post on X, attaching screenshots of the communication received from the ministry’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
The Internet Freedom Foundation has, in no uncertain terms, called the order unconstitutional and authoritarian. The internet rights watchdog’s full statement is below.
The blocking of BitChat’s code on GitHub is unconstitutional and authoritarian.
New Delhi, 24 July 2026
The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) condemns the order issued by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs, directing GitHub to remove the code repositories of BitChat.
The order, Notice No. 11072601011432, was issued at 11:16 pm on 23 July 2026 under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 read with Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021. The order directs GitHub to........