Bitchat Removed From App Stores In India Over 'Law-And-Order Risk': Report

Amid the removal of Jack Dorsey's Bitchat from app stores in India following the IT Ministry's order, government sources on Tuesday said the Bluetooth messaging app was a law-and-order concern and therefore had to be removed.

Sources also categorically ruled out any proposal to ban minors from social media. They noted that curbs have failed in Australia and that children are still getting around it, without accounts.

The government is consulting the industry and experts, including those who understand psychology, sources said, adding that "we have to find a better solution...when the right solution comes, we will bring it in front of you".

A solution, they emphasised, must be found.

On Bitchat, sources said it allows anyone to turn on Bluetooth and send messages through several hops, and this was a concern as it could be used to subvert and bypass law and order.

The government is duty-bound to maintain law and order, sources asserted.

Apple has officially removed the offline messaging application from its India App Store after a demand from the country's IT ministry, Jack Dorsey said in an X post on Saturday.

"Government of India officially removes Bitchat from the App Store," Dorsey, who is the app's developer and Twitter co-founder, wrote in his post, tagging a screenshot of a notice from Apple's App Review team.

The app has also been pulled down from the Google Play Store.

Bitchat came under government scrutiny in July this year, coinciding with the Cockroach Janta Party's protests over exam paper leaks.

At that time, the Home Ministry's cybercrime arm, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, had ordered Microsoft subsidiary GitHub to remove Bitchat.

The CJP has started a nationwide agitation demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over voter roll revision and the Election Commission's functioning.

According to Apple's latest notice shared by Dorsey in his recent post, the app's removal was "per demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)" and because "it includes content that is illegal in India".

"We are writing to notify you that your application, per demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), will be removed from the India App Store because it includes content that is illegal in India, which is not in compliance with the App Review Guidelines," the attached notice had said.

That particular section, the notice said, requires apps to follow all legal requirements in any location where they are offered. It says developers are responsible for understanding and complying with local laws, beyond Apple's own guidelines.

According to the post, MeitY issued the takedown demand under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The Apple notice said the developer of the app can contact the ministry directly for more information about the removal or about Indian laws and requirements.

The app remains available in the App Stores of other territories selected in App Store Connect, Apple said.

"The TestFlight version of this app will also be unavailable for external and internal testing in India, and all public TestFlight links will no longer be functional," it had said.

Bitchat had drawn government action earlier as well, and that time too Dorsey had called it out in an X post. In July, during Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests over exam paper leaks, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre had ordered GitHub to remove Bitchat.

"The government of India does not like technologies like Bitchat and wants it taken down," Dorsey had said in an X post at that time, tagging a copy of the July 23 notice.

In that notice, I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) had said that the app enables communication even during network restrictions and creates a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups and cyber criminals seeking to evade lawful detection and continue communication despite legally imposed restrictions.

The July notice had come after several users participating in a protest organised by the Cockroach Janata Party at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, were observed using Bluetooth-based messaging apps despite the government-imposed temporary restrictions on internet services around the protest site.

According to I4C, since communications occur directly between nearby devices through a decentralised mesh network, the platform could be misused to evade lawful surveillance, facilitate anonymous coordination, and circumvent lawful restrictions imposed by competent authorities during situations involving public disorder, riots, terrorism, organised crime, or internet shutdowns.

"Intelligence inputs indicate that such decentralised communication platforms are capable of being exploited for coordinating unlawful assemblies, violent protests, dissemination of misinformation, radicalisation, criminal conspiracies, and other activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, public order, and for facilitating the commission of cognizable offences," the earlier notice had said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)