India Moves to Wipe Dorsey's Bitchat

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India's cybercrime agency gave GitHub three hours on July 23 to delete three Bitchat code repositories.

The order targets the tech account behind Bitchat, a Bluetooth mesh app that relays messages phone-to-phone with no server, account, or internet. Protesters camped at Delhi's Jantar Mantar have leaned on this tech through repeated mobile blackouts. Block CEO Jack Dorsey posted the notice to an audience that ran up 2.3 million views: the government “does not like technologies like bitchat and wants it taken down.”

The takedown may accomplish little. Bitchat's repo counts more than 3,000 forks, and deleting it strips nothing from phones already running the app. The Internet Freedom Foundation called the order unconstitutional, citing the Supreme Court's Shreya Singhal ruling that grants no blocking power under that section. India joins China, which pushed Apple to pull Bitchat from its local store in April.

Read more below!

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REGULATION

India Orders GitHub to Remove Jack Dorsey's Bitchat Code

India's Cyber Crime Coordination Centre ordered GitHub to disable three repositories under the permissionlesstech account, threatening the platform's safe-harbor protection and criminal prosecution if it missed the three-hour window. The notice cited no specific unlawful content; the Internet Freedom Foundation says the objection is to what Bitchat does — keep people talking during the internet shutdowns imposed around the Delhi protests. The repositories stayed live past the deadline.

India Orders GitHub to Remove Jack Dorsey's Bitchat CodeIndia gave GitHub three hours to pull Jack Dorsey's Bitchat, the offline mesh app protesters use during Delhi's internet blackouts.thedefiant.io

Why this matters: A government treating an encrypted, serverless comms app as contraband is a template other states can copy, and open-source distribution makes the takedown mostly symbolic.

TRADFI

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CEFI

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TRADFI

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Why this matters: The OCC has been the crypto industry's friendliest bank regulator lately. A rejection over AML history signals the charter door is open but not automatic.

BLOCKCHAINS

Stacks Bitcoin Staking Upgrade Vote Passes With 99%, Muneeb Says

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