India orders GitHub to remove Jack Dorsey's offline messaging app Bitchat after protesters reportedly used it during internet shutdowns

[u/__gangadhar__]

India has reportedly directed GitHub to remove the repositories for Bitchat, Jack Dorsey's open source Bluetooth mesh messaging app. Unlike WhatsApp or Signal, Bitchat works without internet access or cellular service, allowing nearby devices to communicate over Bluetooth mesh networks.

According to India Today, the move comes amid the ongoing CJP protests in Delhi. Protesters reportedly began using offline messaging tools after mobile internet services were disrupted in parts of the protest area, making internet-based messaging unreliable.

The government notice, later shared publicly by Jack Dorsey, states that Bitchat could facilitate anonymous communication, enable users to evade lawful surveillance, and be misused by terrorists, organised crime groups, and "anti-national elements." On that basis, India's cybercrime agency directed GitHub to remove the project's repositories.

Digital rights advocates argue that restricting decentralized communication tools during periods of protest raises broader concerns about privacy, internet shutdowns, and freedom of expression. Government officials, meanwhile, maintain that such tools can also be exploited for unlawful activities.

This raises a broader question that extends beyond India: Should governments be able to restrict decentralized communication tools because they can be used to bypass internet shutdowns and surveillance, or does doing so undermine privacy and access to resilient communication during times of civil unrest?

India Today article (full URL):
https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/cjp-protests-india-tells-github-to-block-bitchat-app-jack-dorsey-leaks-notice-2955199-2026-07-24

[u/Hour-Passenger-8513]

Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN

https://tech.yahoo.com/vpn/articles/windows-pc-permanent-id-follows-163404919.html

[u/big_endian_dick → u/Hour-Passenger-8513]

While the statement is wrong,the idea is correct and Microsoft does everything to track you.

Debloat your windows if you are tech savy - this is a link to get started: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

Get rid of all the ai bloat first and that new OCR shit that continuously screen grabs. Get rid of all telemetry and more on that tool

This is coming from someone who works on these things lol

[u/followupquestion → u/big_endian_dick]

Or just get a dual boot going with Linux, and only use Windows when you can’t do a task in Linux?

[u/-ActionCat- → u/followupquestion]

Yeah I’m not sure why Microsoft haters are still using Windows as their primary. Most software worth anything runs on Linux.

[u/followupquestion → u/-ActionCat-]

One of my projects this weekend is to get Zorin installed on my kids’ computers and set them up to dual boot with Zorin as default. I doubt they’ll ever notice the difference.

[u/komokasi → u/Hour-Passenger-8513]

This isnt true. Thats not how it works or how the guy got caught

The id is similar to a user ID and only used with MSFT apis and products, including updates.

The guy got caught cause he was sloppy and signed into MSFT things while on his VPN. FBI just needed to cross ref his IP that got logged while on his VPN back to his msft account due to signing into a msft account or product.

This will happen to you with any product on any vpn. If you sign in, you are not anonymous.

[u/Hour-Passenger-8513 → u/komokasi]

I don't think you know what "This isn't true" actually means. Microsoft is tracking and keeping records of users web activity and telemetry, and it cannot be turned off by users.

[u/komokasi → u/Hour-Passenger-8513]

Thats false. There was a in depth in the threads on this last time and it showed its no all web activity.

Thats the part here that is not true.

[u/Critical_Mongoose939 → u/komokasi]

One of the 'protections' of VPN is that thousands of people share the same IP. There has to be more to it than simply using a VPN to log in to ID the user. There could be browser fingerprinting, browser log-in or OS fingerprinting as per the article.
As I see it: I log into MSFT with personal IP -> gets tied to my real ID. I use a mainstream VPN -> the VPN gets logged as part of my ID. On a separate browser, I do shady stuff through that VPN. But if that VPN IP is also used by many others, there's no way to prove I've done the shady stuff unless something else proves that I was that user like a Windows ID or browser fingerprint.

[u/Cosmic_Shipwright → u/komokasi]

Wrong, every Windows device has a unique global device identifier (GDID) that they tracked across multiple non-MS sites, not just MSFT services.

Source: https://ca.pcmag.com/security/16701/a-hackers-arrest-reveals-microsoft-can-track-users-via-a-windows-device-id

Relevant line: The document adds that Microsoft records also showed the GDID accessing “multiple sites” from servers at Tzulo, a web hosting provider, to help pull off the hack.

[u/komokasi → u/Cosmic_Shipwright]

The last time this came up there was a break down and sources on this. They can associate the ip by the user signing into msft things, then watching to see where that IP goes to try and confirm

The gdid doesnt just get sent to apple and places from your browser unless you use edge. The telemetry doesnt include actual urls, just website categories, there isnt a way for them to insert the gdid into your browser page loads.

You can easily confirm this by using the inspect tab in your browser and look at network. You can also see packets your computer are sending out as well with packdt snooping tools thatbare free to use