Bitchat, a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app created by Jack Dorsey, has been removed from the App Store in China by Apple for allegedly breaching local internet service regulations.
In a post on X on Sunday, Dorsey shared a screenshot from Apple’s app review team stating that Bitchat had been taken down from the Chinese App Store in February. The message also noted that its TestFlight beta would no longer be accessible in China, following a request from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
“Bitchat pulled from the China App Store,” Dorsey wrote.
The app has recently gained traction during protests in countries like Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia, and Iran, where governments have attempted to restrict internet access and communication channels to suppress dissent.
Bitchat functions as an encrypted peer-to-peer messaging service that relies entirely on Bluetooth and mesh networking, allowing it to operate without internet connectivity—an approach that may conflict with China’s tightly controlled and censorship-heavy digital environment.
Chinese regulators said Bitchat breached provisions set by the Cyberspace Administration of China, specifically Article 3 of rules introduced in 2018 governing online services with the potential to shape public opinion or enable social mobilization.
Under these rules, any platform capable of influencing public discourse must undergo a security review before launch and take responsibility for its outcomes, according to a translated version of the regulation.
Apple’s app review team also emphasized that all apps on its store must comply with local laws wherever they are distributed. “We know this is complicated, but it is your responsibility to ensure your app complies with all applicable regulations, not just our guidelines. Apps that promote or encourage illegal or reckless behavior will be rejected,” the team noted.
Despite its removal from China, Bitchat remains accessible in other regions. Download data from Google Chrome indicates the app has surpassed three million downloads, including over 92,000 in the past week, while the Google Play Store reports more than one million installs. Neither platform, however, provides a regional breakdown of these figures.
For comparison, WeChat, developed by Tencent, has an estimated 810 million users in China alone, within a population exceeding 1.4 billion.
