Governments that deploy internet shutdowns to thwart protesters have struggled to clamp down on offline messaging apps. India’s recent response to Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat suggests that battle is entering a new phase.
Bitchat, launched by the Twitter co-founder in 2025, allows nearby phones to communicate over Bluetooth even when mobile networks or internet access are unavailable. Last month, the app had its biggest real-world test after authorities shut down internet access during student protests in New Delhi.
As protesters turned to Bitchat, the Indian government tried to block access to the app’s source code on GitHub, a Microsoft-owned platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. In the past, the Indian government has blocked apps from official app stores due to various reasons, but digital rights advocates say this appears to be the first known attempt to geoblock an open-source software repository.
The episode highlights a growing challenge for governments.
Yeah, xmpp is a great protocol, but everyone needs to be in the vicinity of the server. A mesh network (p2p) where every client also relays messages for other clients is better suited for this usecase. I think meshtastic is an open standard for this. Briar is a valid alternative that works with phones, which most people already own. Not the greatest idea to bring those to protests, though because of network surveillance attacks by police forces. A meshtastic device would solve this problem.
meshtastic very quickly runs into problems with congestion. at around 100 users in a local mesh it becomes super unreliable and in urban areas it is really hard to use. meshcore (a separate network) tries to fix some of that, but is still tied to lora devices and super low bandwidth.
reticulum is not as mature yet, but its protocol is completely transport agnostic, meaning you can mesh almost anything from bluetooth and local wifi to lora, fibreoptic cables, packet radio and telegraph lines. and most importantly: it is a whole new networking stack, not just a single app like meshtastic/meshcore