The decentralized pairs messaging service of the Block Jack Dorsy CEO, Bitchat, has seen an increase in the nation downloads of the African island of Madagascar in the middle of protests, after a similar increase during the disturbances in Nepal and Indonesia in early September.
An open bitcoin source developer under the X Handle Callebtc, who is working in the messaging service, said Sunday: “Downloads Bitchat Spiking in Madagascar”, along with screenshots of the screen cover of the protest.
“Bitchat” trend in Google searches
Callebtc Bitcoin did not share specific discharge numbers, but Google Trends Search “Bitchat” shows a peak of 0 to 100 on Friday (more than 90 days) in Madagascar, especially Antananarivo.
Google Trends tracks how popular it is a search term for a specific period of time, being 100 the highest and shows “maximum popularity” and 0 that shows low interest, or “not enough data.”
At the same time, phrases such as “Bitchat download” and “how to use bitchat” were among the five related consultations, and were labeled as “rupture issues”, which means they had a “tremendous increase” in the activity, according to Google.
Chrome-Stats Show Bitchat has been downloaded 365,307 times since its launch, with more than 21,000 on the last day and more than 71,000 in the last week. However, it does not specify which regions were responsible for most of the downloads.
Protest about power and water cuts
The protests exploded in the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, on Thursday, with some protesters who collided with the police and the reports of looting about the water and the current power cuts, which resulted in the Minister of Energy being fired.
The authorities in Madagascar also imposed a touch of darkening at dawn to suffocate more disturbances. More demonstrations were made on Friday and Saturday throughout the country.
It is only weeks after an increase in Bitcat downloads in Nepal in the middle of a series of violent protests on corruption, which resulted in a prohibition of short -term social networks and protesters forced to look for other ways of communicating and coordinating. Indonesia also had a similar increase in discharges after protests related to corruption broke out.
The majority of Madagascar’s population does not have Internet access
Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. From a population of just under 32 million, the Datortal Global Technology Data Platform estimates that there were only 6.6 million people in Madagascar who had internet access in early 2025.
The platform also estimates that there were more than 18 million active mobile connections in the country in early 2025 and pointed out that “some of these connections can only include services such as voice and SMS, and others may not include Internet access.”
Related: Decentralized application of social networks to challenge the ‘walled gardens’ of Big Tech
Dorsy launched a beta version for Bitchat in July. Use bluetooth mesh networks for encrypted communication without the Internet, and according to the white document, the network is completely decentralized without central servers, accounts, email addresses, telephone numbers to register or infrastructure dependencies.
Encryhed messaging services face the Chat Control Law in the EU
The European Union is in the process of taking energetic measures against private messaging services. Legislators are trying to approve a “chat control” law, which would undermine encrypted messages, which require services such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal to allow regulators to detect messages before they are encrypted and send.
There are 15 EU countries that support the proposal, but it does not reach the population threshold of 65% required for the step. Germany, which has the fundamental vote, has not yet taken a final position.
The CEO of Crypto Advocates Hans Subpel and Elisenda Fábra de Brickken, predict that the proposal can lead users to decentralized web 3 platforms designed for privacy by default.
Magazine: ‘Aid! My void robot is stealing my bitcoin: when smart devices attack
