Wire · regulatory
Internet Freedom Foundation calls India's BitChat GitHub takedown order 'unconstitutional'
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Fusion42 · 24 July 2026 · Fusion42 review
India's cybercrime agency ordered GitHub to remove repositories for BitChat, Jack Dorsey's decentralized messaging app, within three hours, citing risks of surveillance evasion and unlawful activity. The Internet Freedom Foundation challenged the order as unconstitutional, arguing it bypassed formal website-blocking procedures and targeted the app's architecture rather than specific illegal content.
This Wire brief sits within Fusion42's coverage of Crypto & Web3, and 6 sources have reported it between 24 Jul 2026 and 26 Jul 2026.
◆ ◆ The Wire takeaway
If you're building peer-to-peer or decentralized comms outside centralised control, India just showed it will ban the architecture itself, not just the service—and won't wait for court review to do it. That enforcement playbook now spreads to other governments watching.
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6 sources · first reported 24 Jul 2026 · latest 26 Jul 2026
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