India’s attempt to ban Bitchat code sparks legal controversy

The directive, issued by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre on July 23, arrives amid a wave of student-led protests in New Delhi. Demonstrators have increasingly turned to offline, mesh-network applications like Bitchat to coordinate as authorities enforce internet blackouts. Data from Sensor Tower indicates that India accounted for 85% of the app’s global downloads between July 17 and July 23, with daily active users in the country surging to over 330,000.

Legal experts argue the government’s approach marks a dangerous departure from existing protocols under the IT Act. Mishi Choudhary, founder of SFLC.in, noted that current laws do not explicitly authorize the removal of an entire software project simply because of its technical design. Digital rights groups, including the Internet Freedom Foundation, point out that removing code from GitHub does nothing to stop the app from functioning on devices already in use. Instead, critics suggest the move functions as an attempt to stifle the development of privacy-focused, open-source tools entirely. As of Friday, GitHub had not confirmed receiving the notice, and the repositories remained accessible within India.