India asked GitHub to remove Bitchat. The repository stayed up
India’s government ordered GitHub to remove Bitchat, a Bluetooth-based messaging app associated with Jack Dorsey, citing its use during network restrictions. The HN thread immediately checked the practical detail: the repository was still public.
The reported order treats local Bluetooth messaging as a security risk because it can work when internet access is restricted. GitHub had not removed the Bitchat repository when HN discussed the report.
That gap became the thread’s central point: a takedown demand can publicise a tool and cannot erase copies, forks, or alternative hosting. Commenters also connected the case to wider pressure on sideloading and decentralised distribution.
A takedown request for software built around disruption
The Hindu reported that the Indian government asked GitHub to remove Bitchat, a Bluetooth-based chat app linked to Jack Dorsey. The stated concern was that local communication which remains available during network restrictions could be misused by criminal or terrorist groups.
HN’s first fact check was mundane but revealing: the repository was still available. That does not settle the legal request, but it exposes the mismatch between a platform takedown and distributed software. Code can be forked, mirrored, compiled, and moved to another forge long before a single host decides how to respond.
The thread also treated the demand as accidental promotion. One commenter thanked the government for announcing the app to a broader public; another noted the political value of tools that work when conventional internet access is constrained. The harder question is not whether a repository can be removed, but whether governments increasingly try to make distribution channels responsible for what a protocol enables.
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