Overview
- Apple removed Bitchat from the India App Store on Oct. 3, 2026, and the company also disabled TestFlight beta access in the country after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a Section 69A blocking demand.
- Tech checks found Bitchat unavailable on Google Play in India and its website inaccessible on multiple Indian ISPs, while Apple said the app remains available in other territories.
- The government and its cybercrime unit told GitHub in July to take down Bitchat repositories, saying the app’s decentralized Bluetooth mesh lets nearby phones relay encrypted messages without internet and makes interception and subscriber tracing difficult.
- Digital rights groups including the Internet Freedom Foundation say the order is legally and procedurally opaque because the specific illegal content cited has not been published and they argue blocking software for its functionality raises constitutional concerns.
- The move affects users who rely on offline mesh apps during local internet shutdowns and creates a precedent for blocking software for how it works rather than for particular illegal messages, which could reshape how platforms and developers are regulated in India.