India’s recent attempt to block access to the source code of Bitchat, an offline messaging app, on GitHub highlights the growing challenge for governments to control communication during protests. Bitchat, launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2025, allows nearby phones to communicate over Bluetooth even when mobile networks or internet access are unavailable.
The app had its biggest real-world test after authorities shut down internet access during student protests in New Delhi last month. As protesters turned to Bitchat, the Indian government tried to block access to the app’s source code on GitHub.
Offline messaging apps are not new, with FireChat becoming a popular way for demonstrators to communicate without mobile networks during Hong Kong’s 2014 protests. More recently, Bitchat downloads spiked during protests in Myanmar, Nepal, Uganda, Madagascar, and Iran.
Bitchat reached an all-time high of 430,000 daily active users in India on July 26, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Between July 20 and July 26, India accounted for 74% of the app’s global downloads.
The Indian government’s response went beyond targeting the app itself, with the government directing GitHub to disable access to three Bitchat repositories in India within three hours on July 23. Jack Dorsey posted on X on July 24, sharing the government order, saying “the government of India does not like technologies like Bitchat and wants it taken down.”
Namrata Maheshwari, senior policy counsel and encryption policy lead at digital civil rights nonprofit Access Now, told reporters that blocking an entire platform this way is neither necessary nor proportionate. “If the mere possibility of a technology being misused sufficed to block it entirely, we would have no email services or search engines or AI chatbots or even Microsoft Office for that matter,” Maheshwari said.
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Reliable connectivity during unrest allows people to communicate with family, document events, access emergency services, and avoid misinformation, according to Maheshwari. The decentralized architecture of Bitchat means that there is no central server or database, making it harder to shut down. This is similar to how people seek control over personal data in other contexts.
The clash over Bitchat comes as India — home to the world’s second-largest internet user base — has increasingly challenged the design of communication platforms rather than just the content they carry. In recent months, India has clamped down on apps for their inherent design, testing the boundaries of platform-wide restrictions.
At the time of publication, the repositories remained accessible in India and had also been mirrored, making them harder to remove entirely. The government’s order appears to have boosted the app’s visibility, with Prateek Waghre, a Bengaluru-based tech policy expert, saying that it would have stayed within the tech policy circle without the notice going to GitHub and Jack Dorsey tweeting it out.
The Indian government’s move to block Bitchat may have unintended consequences, such as driving more users to the app and increasing its popularity.
It will be interesting to see how governments respond to these new challenges.