India ordered Apple to remove Jack Dorsey's Bitchat under Section 69A. The mesh messaging app is also gone from Google Play in the country.
Bitchat, the decentralized messaging app designed to work without any internet connection at all, has disappeared from Apple's App Store and Google Play in India, months after New Delhi first sought to restrict access to the open-source software. The move marks a significant escalation: what began as a takedown demand aimed at code repositories has now extended to the consumer distribution channels through which most users would ever encounter the app.
The Order Arrives Through Apple
Dorsey said Saturday that the Indian government had ordered Apple to remove Bitchat from its App Store in the country. In a notice from Apple that Dorsey posted on X, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued the demand under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, the country's primary legal provision for government-ordered online blocking.
Apple's notice said Bitchat would remain available on its App Store outside India. Access to the app through its TestFlight beta-testing service would also be blocked inside the country.
Google Play and the Open Web Follow
Bitchat was also no longer available for download through Google Play in India when TechCrunch checked on Saturday, and Bitchat's website was inaccessible across various internet service providers in the country. It was not immediately clear whether Google and the internet service providers had also received their own directions from the federal government. Apple