The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, ordered GitHub on 23 July 2026 to disable access to three repositories linked to Bitchat — a decentralised messaging app founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that works over Bluetooth mesh networks without the internet, mobile networks or central servers. The order gave GitHub three hours to comply and invoked Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 with Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021, stating the hosted content is prohibited by law or being used for an unlawful act. Officials cited a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements. It is among the first known instances of India using this takedown route against source code rather than posts or videos, and Dorsey made the notice public.
Key Facts & Details
9 points- 1I4C, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, ordered GitHub to disable three Bitchat repositories.
- 2The order was issued on 23 July 2026 with a three-hour compliance deadline.
- 3It invoked Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000 and Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021.
- 4Bitchat, founded by Jack Dorsey, messages over Bluetooth mesh without internet or mobile networks.
- 5Officials cited a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements.
- 6It is among the first known uses of this mechanism against source code, not posts or videos.
Deep Dive
- +GitHub is a Microsoft-owned platform where developers host and share source code.
- +The three repositories covered the main project, its Android build and the Android releases page.
- +Dorsey published the notice, saying the government wanted the app taken down.
Exam Focus
Which agency ordered GitHub to disable the Bitchat repositories, and under which law?
Exam Relevance & Angle
I4C, Section 79 of the IT Act and the intermediary rules are recurring cyber-governance topics, and extending takedowns to source code is a notable first.
Target Exams
Background & Context
Most messaging apps route your message through the internet to a company's server and back. Bluetooth mesh works differently: each phone passes the message directly to nearby phones, which relay it onward, so a crowd can communicate with no internet, no mobile network and no central server. That is useful where networks fail or are shut down — and it is exactly why governments worry about it, since there is no company to serve a lawful order on. Section 79 of the IT Act gives online intermediaries protection from liability for user content only if they act on government notice, which is the lever used here — this time against the app's source code on a developer platform rather than a social-media post.
Test Yourself
1 / 2Which agency ordered GitHub to disable repositories of the Bitchat app?
Source
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