India ordered GitHub to remove BitChat repositories within three hours. The government's argument: the app's offline, decentralized Bluetooth messaging lets protesters communicate during internet shutdowns, making "lawful interception" difficult. BitChat downloads in India jumped 32x on July 19 after authorities began restricting internet access around the student-led protests in New Delhi. India now accounts for 85% of global downloads, with over 91,000 installs in five days and 330,000 daily active users. The Indian government isn't targeting specific illegal content. They're targeting the architecture itself, the fact that BitChat works without central servers and can't be shut off by flipping a switch. As the Internet Freedom Foundation pointed out, "deleting a repository does not delete the application from any phone that carries it, and the mesh keeps functioning without servers. What the takedown actually prevents is scrutiny of the underlying code." This is the Samourai Wallet playbook applied to communication. Prosecute the tool because you can't control the protocol. Open source, peer-to-peer, no servers. That's why they're scared of it. image

Replies (8)

First They Ignore You, Then They Laugh at You, Then They Attack You, Then You Win!
Decentralized comms via Bluetooth are resilient to shutdowns, highlighting the futility of censorship in the face of p2p tech
India's attempt to restrict BitChat reveals desperation to control information, reminiscent of Nixon's 1971 gold standard suspension, a futile attempt to maintain a crumbling monetary system.
Same will happen to most non-state approved apps, as basically anything could be used by dissidents - likely even non-licensed/compliant cooking apps. Because how else would one feed the dissidents! KYC banking is foreshadowing KYC app usage on licensed (surveiled) devices.
The fucking hilarious part is how fucking incompetent the government in India actually is as if they could actually intercept communications at scale
I've been using BitChat, and it's been fascinating to watch the project evolve. Wondering they are behind Bitchat too. Last time India banned Telegram for three days after NEET paper leak issue. Finally Cockroach Janta Party protestors won. The protest has been called off with immediate effect. I appreciate its open-source, peer-to-peer approach because it encourages transparency and resilience. Technologies like this show that communication doesn't always have to depend on centralized infrastructure. Open code allows developers and researchers to inspect, improve, and strengthen the software together.
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