Apple removed the offline messaging app Bitchat from its India App Store following a government order. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued the demand under Section 69A of the IT Act. Apple said the app included content that was “illegal in India” and stopped its local availability.
Synopsis
Apple has removed Jack Dorsey-backed offline messaging app Bitchat from its India App Store following a government takedown order under Section 69A of the IT Act.
Listen to this article in summarized format
Apple has removed Bitchat, an offline messaging app backed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, from its India App Store following a demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Dorsey on Saturday posted a screenshot of an Apple App Review notice on X, saying that the Indian government had “officially” removed Bitchat from the App Store.
What Apple said
In the notice, Apple said it was removing Bitchat from the India App Store following a demand from MeitY. Apple said the app included content that was “illegal in India” and therefore did not comply with its App Review Guidelines.
The notice said MeitY had issued the takedown demand under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
However, Apple did not specify what content in Bitchat was considered illegal or which specific ground under Section 69A was invoked.
Apple asked the developer to contact MeitY for more information about the removal and the legal requirements in India.
Only removed in India
Apple said Bitchat would continue to be available in other countries where the developer had made it available. The app was not available on Apple's India App Store when checked on Saturday.
Apple also said Bitchat's TestFlight version would no longer be available for internal or external testing in India. Public TestFlight links for the app would also stop working in the country.
Earlier government action
This is not the first time Bitchat has faced action from Indian authorities. During the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests in July, the government ordered online platform GitHub to remove access to Bitchat, saying that it may be misused by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups and cybercriminals.
According to ET, the order was sent by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Union home affairs ministry. The order directed GitHub to disable access to three Bitchat repositories within three hours.
Bitchat is a decentralised, peer-to-peer connection app which utilises Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh networks and requires no internet, phone number, or central servers. The application connects devices within roughly 30-100 metres, allowing phones to relay messages across multiple hops to extend network reach without cellular service or Wi-Fi.
(Catch all the Technology News News, and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)