India Orders GitHub to Remove Bitchat Repositories Within 3 Hours, Citing Law Enforcement Concerns

According to CoinDesk, India's Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, issued an order to GitHub on July 24 requiring removal of three code repositories related to Bitchat—a Bitcoin-enabled offline messaging app developed by Twitter founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey—within 3 hours. The notice states the application's anonymous communication architecture, which requires no registration or phone number and maintains no centralized logs, severely impedes law enforcement's lawful interception and investigation capabilities.

Bitchat, released open-source in July 2025, transmits encrypted messages via Bluetooth mesh networks and supports offline Bitcoin transactions without requiring internet, servers, or accounts. The takedown order follows student protests in Delhi, where activists used mesh networking tools like Bitchat to maintain communication after government internet shutdowns. As of CoinDesk's reporting, GitHub's compliance with the 3-hour deadline remained unclear, though the app remains available on Google Play and App Store.