The offline messaging application Bitchat has been removed from the Indian App Store. This action was confirmed by the app's developer and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on X on Saturday. According to Apple's notice, this step was taken at the request of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act. Additionally, in July, the cyber wing of the Home Ministry, I4C, had also requested the removal of this app from GitHub.
Dorsey stated in his post that the Indian government has officially removed Bitchat from the App Store and shared a screenshot of the notice from Apple's app review team. The notice mentioned that the app contains content that is illegal in India, making it non-compliant with app review guidelines. Under these guidelines, developers must understand and adhere to the laws of the location where the app is made available. However, the developer can contact the ministry directly to obtain information.
This app will remain available on the app stores of other countries selected in App Store Connect. In India, its TestFlight version will be closed for both external and internal testing, and all public TestFlight links will be deactivated.
This is not the first time such an action has occurred. In July, I4C directed the removal of Bitchat from Microsoft's GitHub during anti-paper leak protests by the Cockroach Janata Party. Despite temporary bans on internet services imposed by the government in Jantar Mantar, Delhi, many people were seen using the Bluetooth-based messaging app. At that time, Dorsey commented via a notice dated July 23 that the government does not favor technologies like Bitchat.
In that notice, I4C argued that since devices connect directly to form a mesh network, the app could be misused to evade surveillance and break restrictions. Furthermore, it becomes difficult for investigating agencies to obtain user information and records. In this context, the notice cited violations of Section 43, 84B, 84C, and Section 61 of the IT Act, as well as Sections 196 and 197.