Overview
- India’s Cyber Crime Coordination Centre issued a notice that named three GitHub repositories and directed GitHub to disable them within three hours, with the document dated July 23.
- Jack Dorsey made the notice public on X on July 24, posting screenshots and saying the government wants technologies like Bitchat taken down.
- GitHub and Microsoft have not publicly confirmed receiving or complying with the order and reporters found the named repositories still accessible in some checks.
- Digital-rights groups and legal experts criticized the directive for not pointing to specific unlawful content and argued removing code does not stop already distributed app instances or forks.
- Bitchat uses Bluetooth Low Energy to relay encrypted messages device to device without accounts or servers, which helps protesters communicate when mobile internet is cut but also makes evidence-based law enforcement and takedowns practically limited.