{"id":455,"date":"2026-10-04T16:58:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=455"},"modified":"2026-10-04T16:58:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:58:02","slug":"dorsey-bitchat-vanishes-india-app-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"DORSEY\u2019S OFFLINE CHAT APP VANISHES IN INDIA! | Apple &#038; Google pull Bitchat after Section 69A order \u2014 still listed elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jack Dorsey\u2019s offline chat experiment just got yanked in one of the world\u2019s biggest app markets. <strong>Bitchat<\/strong> \u2014 a Bluetooth mesh messaging app that works encrypted with no internet, cellular, or central servers required \u2014 disappeared from the Apple App Store and Google Play in India, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/10\/03\/jack-dorseys-bitchat-disappears-from-app-stores-in-india-after-government-order\/\">TechCrunch<\/a> reported Oct. 3, 2026 (Jagmeet Singh).<\/p>\n<p>Dorsey said Saturday the Indian government ordered Apple to remove it under the IT Act\u2019s <strong>Section 69A<\/strong> (MeitY). Apple\u2019s notice: the app stays available outside India; TestFlight is also blocked in India. TechCrunch checked Google Play \u2014 gone. The website was inaccessible on various ISPs. Apple, Google, and MeitY had no comment.<\/p>\n<p>Bitchat launched in July last year. In <strong>July 2026<\/strong>, India ordered a GitHub takedown of related repos under a different legal provision (intermediary liability). The government cited the hard-to-intercept design and the fact that it works during internet shutdowns. The <strong>Internet Freedom Foundation<\/strong> called the latest order unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The crackdown lands amid youth protests over voter rolls; internet around Jantar Mantar was suspended for about <strong>12 hours Friday<\/strong>. During July protests, demonstrators used Bitchat and Briar. Sensor Tower data: India accounted for roughly <strong>85%<\/strong> of global downloads July 17\u201323, versus about <strong>1%<\/strong> in the prior 30 days.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/10\/03\/jack-dorseys-bitchat-disappears-from-app-stores-in-india-after-government-order\/\">TechCrunch \u2014 Jagmeet Singh, Oct. 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple &#038; Google pull Bitchat after Section 69A order \u2014 still listed elsewhere<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb-bitchat-india-1004-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}