New Delhi: The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the cloud-based web platform GitHub to remove three pages hosting the source code of Bitchat, the Bluetooth mesh messaging app built by Block chief executive and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. This comes amidst usage of the app by protesters at Jantar Mantar demanding resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Dorsey put the order out on X Friday, posting images of the two-page notice. “…the government of india does not like technologies like bitchat and wants it taken down,” he wrote. The order is timestamped 23 July, 2026, 23:16 hours.It has been issued under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021, and lists three URLs: the Bitchat repository, the Bitchat Android repository, and the releases page of the Android repository, all under the account permissionlesstech.
ThePrint could not independently verify the authenticity of the order.ThePrint reached Rajesh Kumar, CEO of I4C, over call and message. This report will be updated if he responds.A senior government official, asked about Dorsey’s claim, said Friday on condition of anonymity, “Bitchat is illegal so it has to be taken down.”
