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India ordered GitHub to remove repositories hosting Bitchat, a Bluetooth-based messaging app created by Jack Dorsey.
The direction came from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Bitchat uses Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks to send messages between nearby phones without internet or servers.
The government cited risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terror groups and criminals who could evade surveillance.
The order used the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the IT Rules, 2021.
Ordinary messaging apps route messages through the internet and central servers. A Bluetooth mesh app like Bitchat instead passes encrypted messages directly from phone to phone over short-range Bluetooth Low Energy, with each device relaying to the next, so a message can 'hop' across a chain of nearby devices without any internet, mobile network or central server. This makes communication possible during internet shutdowns, but the same absence of a central server makes it very hard for authorities to monitor or trace, which is the government's concern.
Simple Analogy: It is like passing a note hand-to-hand across a crowd instead of posting it, so there is no post office record of it.
Requires intermediaries to remove or disable unlawful content on being notified by an appropriate authority, to retain safe-harbour protection.
Obliges intermediaries to act on government or court orders to take down specified content.
GS Paper 3 > Internal Security; Cyber Security
General Awareness > Science, Technology and Governance
Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, the MHA body coordinating action against cybercrime.
A platform that hosts or transmits third-party content, such as GitHub, with take-down duties under the IT rules.
A network where devices relay data for one another, extending reach without central infrastructure.