Apple pulls Bitchat from India's App Store on government order

Apple has removed Bitchat, Jack Dorsey's Bluetooth messaging app, from its App Store in India. Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder, posted a screenshot of the notice on Oct. 3, TechCrunch reported. Apple says it is complying with a request from MeitY, India's electronics and information technology ministry, and that the notice cites Section 69A of the country's 2000 IT law.

For people in India, the app can no longer be downloaded from Apple's store, and test builds on TestFlight have stopped working, according to The Wire. TechCrunch checked the same Saturday that it could not be downloaded from Google Play either. Outside India, Apple says the app remains available.

Bitchat works without a cellular network, without internet and without central servers: nearby phones form a Bluetooth mesh and pass encrypted messages to one another. It launched in July 2025. Inc42 and TechCrunch also report that its website stopped loading on Indian internet providers.

Apple's notice says the app contains content that is illegal in India, according to MediaNama. The notice does not say what that content is or which ground of Section 69A applies, and the ministry's order is not public. TechCrunch says MeitY, Apple and Google did not respond to its requests for comment.

The Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital rights group, argues the order is unconstitutional. According to The Wire, it says the provision exists to block unlawful information and not, in its words, "a messenger" for working during internet shutdowns.

It is not the government's first move against the app. In July, Indian authorities had already asked GitHub to take down Bitchat's repositories, and TechCrunch reports the government said the app's design makes it hard to intercept communications. Still pending: that MeitY publish the order and explain what content it considers illegal.