India Orders Apple to Pull Jack Dorsey's Bitchat From App Store, Again Won't Say What's Illegal About It

Jack Dorsey's Bitchat app is gone from Apple's India App Store. Dorsey posted a screenshot on X Saturday, October 3, 2026, showing an Apple App Review notice that said India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, known as MeitY, demanded the removal under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, according to TechCrunch and Yahoo News.

Apple's notice said Bitchat "includes content that is illegal in India," according to the Economic Times. It didn't say what that content is. It also didn't say which specific provision of Section 69A applies. Apple told the developer to contact MeitY directly for answers.

The app is also gone from Google Play in India, and Bitchat's website was unreachable across multiple Indian internet providers when TechCrunch checked Saturday. It's unclear whether Google or the internet providers got their own government orders, since neither TechCrunch nor any other source could confirm that. Apple, Google, and MeitY did not respond to requests for comment, per TechCrunch.

Apple also cut off Bitchat's TestFlight beta channel in India, meaning there's no workaround through Apple's developer testing system either, according to Business Today and the Times of India.

This isn't the first run-in

Bitchat, launched in July last year, uses Bluetooth mesh networking to let nearby phones swap encrypted messages without internet, cell towers, or a central server, relaying hops across a network that can stretch 30 to 100 meters per connection, per the Economic Times.

In July 2026, India's Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, under the Home Affairs Ministry, ordered GitHub to pull three Bitchat code repositories within three hours, according to the Economic Times. That order cited a different law: the IT Act's provision on intermediary liability for third-party content, not Section 69A.

The government told GitHub at the time that Bitchat's design made it hard for law enforcement to intercept messages or trace users, and flagged its ability to keep working during internet shutdowns, according to TechCrunch. The Hindu reported, as cited by Newscord, that the July order argued decentralized apps like Bitchat could be exploited to coordinate unlawful assemblies, spread misinformation, aid radicalization, or support criminal conspiracies. An app built specifically to defeat network shutdowns and frustrate interception does present a challenge for law enforcement trying to track organized crime or terror cells.

But the government hasn't published the actual order or named the illegal content behind either takedown. The Internet Freedom Foundation, a New Delhi digital rights group, called the latest Section 69A order unconstitutional, arguing the law lets the government block specific unlawful information, not ban an entire app because of what it's technically capable of, according to TechCrunch and Yahoo News. IFF also said neither the blocking order nor the alleged illegal content has been made public.

Section 69A exists to remove specific unlawful material, not to outlaw a communications tool because a government finds its architecture inconvenient. If MeitY has evidence Bitchat was used for something genuinely illegal, it can say so. So far it hasn't, in either the July GitHub order or this latest Apple notice, and no court has ruled on the legality of either action.

The timing

The Apple removal landed the same weekend India saw renewed youth-led protests over changes to the country's voter rolls. Police detained several demonstrators in New Delhi on Saturday, October 3, as protesters demanded the resignation of India's chief election commissioner over alleged manipulation of electoral rolls, according to TechCrunch and Yahoo News. Authorities had suspended internet services around New Delhi's Jantar Mantar for 12 hours the day before, during protests there, per TechCrunch and Yahoo News. The Times of India separately noted the Apple notice came a day after protests organized by the Cockroach Janata Party in Delhi and Mumbai.

None of the sourcing ties the Apple takedown directly to those protests as cause and effect. MeitY hasn't explained why it invoked Section 69A now, three months after the GitHub order, and under a different legal theory than it used in July. Multiple sources noted that India accounted for roughly 85% of Bitchat's global downloads during the week of July 17-23, 2026, up from about 1% in the prior 30 days, according to data from Sensor Tower. That underscores how much of the app's user base just lost official access to it.

Whether the Internet Freedom Foundation or anyone else challenges the order in court remains to be seen. None of the available reporting indicates a legal challenge has been filed.