The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the code repository platform GitHub to remove and disable access to the code for BitChat, a peer-to-peer messaging platform that works without an internet connection using Bluetooth mesh technology.
In an order issued late on Thursday night, the I4C said that BitChat enables “anonymous communication without mandatory user registration, phone number verification, or centralised logging of communications”, which “significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution and investigation” by law enforcement agencies.
“Since communications can occur directly between nearby devices through a decentralised mesh network, the platform can be misused to evade lawful surveillance, facilitate anonymous coordination, and circumvent lawful restrictions imposed by authorities” during riots, public disorder, terrorism, organised crime or internet shutdowns.
BitChat, a peer-to-peer messaging system, works without the internet by connecting to devices that have their Bluetooth turned on. A message sent from one mobile device to a recipient travels by connecting the sender’s mobile device to another mobile device within a 30-100 metre range and hopping through the Bluetooth mesh network until the message reaches the intended recipient.
The messages sent through the platform are completely end-to-end encrypted, so no devices other than the sender and the intended recipient can read the contents of the communication.
The app, launched by former Twitter (now X) Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, has come under the government’s lens in India after its usage surged during the ongoing protests against the leak of the question paper for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), an examination for students seeking admission to medical courses.
In a post on X, Dorsey, while making the takedown order public, said that the government “does not like technologies like bitchat and wants it taken down”.
“The reasons in the order are circular. The order asserts that the repositories contain ‘information which is prohibited under any law’ without naming any such information, and rests on what the application is ‘capable of’ enabling. Anticipated misuse of a communications tool is not a lawful basis to prohibit the tool. By this logic, a telephone exchange could be sealed,” technology policy and digital privacy advocacy body Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) said in a post on X.
The opacity surrounding these removals goes against the strict requirements of accountability and record-keeping embedded in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009, policy advocacy body SFLC.in said.
