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Bitchat keeps working after India targets its GitHub code
The peer-to-peer, Bluetooth mesh messaging app was created without internet access or central servers, but India’s cybercrime authorities sought a takedown during student protests.
Bitcoin Magazine reports that Bitchat, a censorship-resistant Bluetooth-enabled messaging app, continued to function after the Indian government tried to get it banned from GitHub by pursuing a takedown request tied to the app’s code. The outlet says the open-source Bitchat app, announced by Jack Dorsey in July 2025, was designed to operate without internet access, phone numbers, user accounts, or centralized servers. Instead, it uses Bluetooth mesh networks for local communication and the Nostr protocol for wider reach when internet connectivity is available. According to Bitcoin Magazine, the app had previously become the subject of a formal takedown request from India’s cybercrime authorities during a period of student protests. The app’s design includes end-to-end encryption, no registration, public local channels, private encrypted messages, and location-based channels organized by geographic zones, with a panic feature that clears stored data. The outlet also notes that Bitchat’s code is open source, with primary repositories hosted under the permissionlesstech organization on GitHub, and that iOS and Android versions are distributed through the App Store, Google Play, and other app stores and GitHub releases.
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