The post China Orders Apple to Remove Dorsey’s Bitchat, appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

China’s Cyberspace Administration has ordered Apple to pull Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat from its China App Store, citing regulations that require apps with “social mobilization” capabilities to pass a government security assessment before launch. Summary The Cyberspace Administration of China told Apple to remove Bitchat from its China App Store and TestFlight beta, effective February 2026, a ban Dorsey disclosed publicly on April 5 The CAC cited Article 3 of its regulations governing apps with “public opinion or social mobilization capabilities,” which require a mandatory security review before deployment Bitchat, which runs entirely over Bluetooth mesh networks with no internet required, has surpassed three million downloads globally and was widely used by protesters in Iran, Uganda, Nepal, and Indonesia to bypass government shutdowns Block CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed on X that his decentralized messaging app, Bitchat, was pulled from China’s App Store in February 2026 at the direct request of the Cyberspace Administration of China. As crypto.news reported, the CAC cited Article 3 of its regulations covering online services with “public opinion or social mobilization capabilities,” a provision that has been in force since 2018 and requires a state security assessment before any such platform can launch. Both the App Store listing and the TestFlight beta version are now unavailable in China, though the app remains accessible in all other markets. Bitchat’s core design is what put it on Beijing’s radar. The app operates entirely over Bluetooth and mesh networks, requiring no internet connection. That architecture makes it functionally immune to conventional government filtering and firewall blocking — the same tools China relies on to manage digital communication. That design has given Bitchat an outsized role during political unrest. Protesters in Iran used it to communicate as authorities attempted to restrict connectivity during the ongoing conflict. As crypto.news documented, Bitchat also…

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Filed under: News - @ April 6, 2026 7:27 pm