Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey

ithadhumor

Democracy Dies in Darkness

DenisM

For clarity: Indian government.

OgsyedIE

Bluetooth based messaging apps are naturally able to circumvent internet restrictions that inhibit protests, citizen journalism and other kinds of unapproved activities but there are several ways Bluetooth could be updated as a protocol to introduce compatibility with some kind of antibody-esque suppression of communication standard. It's just a matter of interested parties setting up a body to create the standard, which might genuinely be a huge bottleneck under the current geopolitical landscape.

delichon

Still available. https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat

miohtama

If Modi government wants to ban something, it is usually good stuff. > “The application’s design, which enables communication even during network restrictions, creates a substantial risk of misuse by anti-national elements, terrorist organisations, organised criminal groups, and cybercriminals seeking to evade lawful detection and continue communication despite legally imposed restrictions,” the notice mentioned.

jmclnx

With google banning side loaded apps, is what India wants to do just a waste of time by India. Does Apple still allow side loaded apps ?

paxys

Thank you Indian government for announcing the existence of this app to the public.

iamnothere

Too bad it operates on Nostr, which is crypto-adjacent, otherwise they could move to Codeberg.

iamshs

India is now going after domains too: https://www.reuters.com/world/worlds-biggest-domain-seller-f... To imagine that US MNCs readily obey these orders. There was a time when Gmail exited China due to Aurora attacks, and Chinese GFW is universally hated, so why is India allowed to create a GFW like censorship on US platforms? Indian courts have even blocked Reuters articles GLOBALLY before. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/19/india-judg...

thebrid

What an excellent idea. This will surely make the protesters go away.</s>

iambenm

India is pretty serious about being able to monitor all communications after the terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008. The terrorists used satellite phones to coordinate the attack. As a result, they banned most satellite communication devices. I learned about this earlier this year because I had a connecting flight through India on the way to go trekking in the Himalayas. I had planned to take a Garmin inReach with me, but luckily a day or two before my flight out I came across horror stories of people getting pulled out of security and taken to JAIL in India for having these things in their checked bags when TRANSITING India. Security there when transiting from Switzerland to Nepal was no joke - every single electronic item including anything with wires had to come out of bags including electric toothbrush. In light of that, banning point to point communication seems on brand for India. Note that Apple gets a pass for its satellite capable phones by geofencing India and disabling the feature.

pbiggar

We evaluated Bitchat and determined it would be a really useful tool for Gaza - Israel controls all internet access to Palestine and would frequently cut off internet access to Gazans. We tried building our own but when Bitchat came out we focused on that instead. https://updates.techforpalestine.org/bitchat-for-gaza-messag...

SpyCoder77

Title should specify that it is Indian government. I was worried for a second there that it was the American government. I should have read the url though.

i_idiot

In long term, it seems democracies transform to autocracies. Well, china is the future indeed.

lebuffon

India is kind of cute. In the late 90s I attended a Telephone industry conference while working for a telephony test equipment company. A rep. from the Indian government gave a talk on their telephone system regulations. During the question period I got up and asked how India was dealing with voice over internet protocol (VOIP). With a straight face the speaker replied "We will not allow it". :-)

caruasdo

On the contrary, these projects should be given a boost.

tyleo

Wow I didn’t know about this technology but it sounds like seriously cool stuff

abhisek

#2 post on HN currently is: India’s first privately developed rocket reaches orbit on dramatic debut launch. In the same page, there is this news about banning an OSS app, built on open tech. Just saying.

patrickmay

I sincerely hope that Microsoft responds with "If the Indian government wants to block content hosted on U.S. servers, they are more than welcome to set up their own Great Firewall."

parisiansam

Aside of if it's right or not (i actually think it is), the bag is out in the open, anyone any countries, any bad person or security persons are going to look at it now