Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat Explodes in Madagascar as Protesters Ditch Government-Controlled Comms
Jack Dorsey’s decentralized messaging app Bitchat experienced a large surge in downloads in Madagascar throughout violent protests over water and electrical energy shortages, which pressured authorities to impose dusk-to-dawn curfews throughout the capital.
Google Trends information shows “Bitchat” searches spiking from zero to 100 in Antananarivo as protesters sought censorship-resistant communication alternate options.
Poverty and Infrastructure Crisis Fuel Violent Demonstrations
The peer-to-peer software operates with out web infrastructure utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks, permitting encrypted messages to hop between gadgets inside 30-meter ranges.
Chrome-Stats reveals Bitchat has been downloaded 365,307 instances since launch, with over 21,000 downloads in the final day and greater than 71,000 in the previous week.
Protests erupted on Thursday as hundreds of largely younger protesters marched by way of Antananarivo, demanding the restoration of dependable water and electrical energy companies.
Police fired tear fuel to disperse crowds who barricaded roads with burning tires and rocks earlier than looting purchasing malls, banks, and attacking houses of lawmakers near President Andry Rajoelina.
The authorities sacked its vitality minister and imposed curfews from 7 PM to five AM to revive public order.
Madagascar faces extreme poverty, with 75% of its 30 million inhabitants dwelling under the World Bank’s poverty line, whereas solely 6.6 million residents have web entry.
Mesh Networks Enable Communication During Civil Unrest
Bitchat adoption in Madagascar follows related patterns noticed throughout current protests in Nepal and Indonesia.
Nepal recorded 48,781 downloads on September 8 as youth-led demonstrations in opposition to corruption and social media bans left 22 useless and compelled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation.
The software requires no cellphone numbers, electronic mail addresses, or account registration whereas offering end-to-end encryption by way of X25519 key trade and AES-256-GCM protocols.
Each machine features as each a consumer and a server, creating self-organizing networks which might be resilient to centralized assaults or single factors of failure.
Messages fragment into 500-byte chunks, enabling transmission throughout a number of machine hops with as much as seven relay factors.
The store-and-forward system caches messages for offline customers as much as 12 hours, making certain supply even when direct connections are unavailable.
Random peer IDs are generated for every session, defending consumer privateness whereas eliminating the necessity for persistent identifiers.
Emergency wipe capabilities, accessible by way of triple-tap instructions, immediately clear native information if gadgets are compromised or confiscated.
Dorsey launched the beta in July 2025, filling TestFlight’s 10,000 capability inside hours.
The weekend mission focuses on catastrophe coordination, occasion overflow communication, and constructing cross-community bridges throughout web shutdowns or authorities censorship campaigns.
Western Governments Target Encrypted Communications Simultaneously
The European Union advances its controversial “Chat Control” regulation, which requires messaging apps to scan each message, picture, and video earlier than encryption.
Fifteen EU international locations at the moment help the proposal, although it falls wanting the 65% inhabitants threshold required for passage.
The Child Sexual Abuse Regulation mandates client-side scanning the place software program checks content material on consumer gadgets earlier than transmission.
Supporters argue the measure combats little one abuse materials, whereas critics warn it allows mass surveillance and weakens encryption, defending monetary privateness.
Parallel pressures exist in the United States, the place Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has stated that his firm avoids constructing infrastructure attributable to considerations about authorities surveillance.
PAVEL DUROV: THE U.S. WANTED TO CONTROL TELEGRAM BETTER
“We get an excessive amount of consideration from the FBI and different safety companies each time we come to the U.S.
The final time I used to be in the U.S., I introduced an engineer who works for Telegram.
There was an try by cybersecurity… pic.twitter.com/DUpz4j5TpX
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 24, 2024
The NSA beforehand tried to affect international encryption requirements to make them simpler to interrupt, information revealed by way of Edward Snowden’s leaks.
For the EU, Germany holds the pivotal vote and has but to take a remaining stance forward of the anticipated October 14 Council vote.
Platforms like Signal have steered they’d exit the EU market relatively than compromise on encryption requirements.
For cryptocurrency customers, the regulation poses a risk to the encryption defending pockets transactions, non-public keys, and id information.
Client-side scanning may theoretically prolong to peer-to-peer funds, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, or pockets operations, thereby undermining the rules of decentralization.
Crypto advocates predict that the proposal would possibly drive customers towards decentralized Web3 platforms, that are designed for privateness by default.
Major tech corporations, together with Google and Starlink, have invested in mesh networking options as decentralized infrastructure alternate options.
Global adoption of censorship-resistant instruments continues accelerating, with Indonesia recording 12,581 Bitchat downloads throughout August protests over parliamentary allowances and police brutality, just like Nepal.
Russia additionally contributed 8,749 downloads whereas the United States registered 8,211 customers throughout the identical time.
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