A similar order is believed to have been received by Google to restrict the app’s access on Play Store.
“Government of India officially removes bitchat from the App Store,” Dorsey wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of an email he received from Apple.
The order received from the Union ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) sought to withhold the app in India for three days, according to people aware of the matter.
The move comes amid protests in several cities demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged problems in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Protesters used the app to stay connected to people within Bluetooth range, typically a few dozen metres, as authorities suspended mobile internet services. Similar curbs were rolled out this past week. IFF argued that the app has no servers and hosts no content of its own.
On October 2, during student-organised protests against Gyanesh Kumar, the government shut down the internet for 12 hours, from 9am to 9pm, within a 1.5-km radius of Jantar Mantar. MeitY issued the takedown demand under Section 69(a) of the Information Technology Act, according to the email. Because it includes content that is illegal in India, which is not in compliance with the App Review Guidelines, the document posted by Dorsey to back his allegation against the Indian government was an email sent by Apple’s App Review team, which stated: “per demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), [Bitchat] will be removed from the India App Store.
People aware of the matter told HT that the government is of the view that the app’s features may potentially be misused for anonymous coordination, unlawful assemblies, and organized criminal activities. “Section 69A permits the blocking of unlawful information, not of a messenger for working during internet shutdowns,” it said in a post on X, demanding the MeitY to publish the blocking order and to withdraw the direction. “What travels through it is the private speech of its users, so the claim that the application ‘includes’ illegal content is incoherent,” it said.
Bitchat had earlier become a lifeline for demonstrators, when in July, when mobile internet was repeatedly suspended around Jantar Mantar during the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) protest demanding the resignation of the then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
