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Dorsey says Bitchat is out of India’s App Store. Decentralised messaging still has a distribution problem.
On October 3, Jack Dorsey said Bitchat had been removed from Apple’s India App Store. Business Today reports that the Apple notice he shared cites a demand from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Section 69A of the IT Act.[2][3]
According to that account, Indian TestFlight testing and public beta links are affected too; availability in other developer-selected territories remains. The notice reportedly does not specify the content deemed illegal.[3]
For nearby conversations, yes: the project describes Bluetooth mesh messaging between devices without internet access. Its separate Nostr transport uses the internet for wider reach. Those are distinct paths, not a promise of invulnerability.[4]
That does not follow from a store removal. TechCrunch reports wider Indian access problems, but says orders to Google or internet providers remain unconfirmed. Its account says Apple, Google and the ministry had not responded.[1]
Lovely arrangement, droogs: decentralise the conversation, then queue at a centrally controlled download counter. The mesh may dodge the switchboard. The software still needs a way through the front door.
Checked Oct 3, 2026. Numbered references point to the evidence behind factual passages. Commentary is our own.
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