Block CEO’s peer-to-peer-peer-to-peer messaging service Jack Dorsey has seen a spike in downloads from Madagascar’s Nation of Madagascar in the middle of African Island Nation of Madagascar amidst the protests, following a similar uprising during Nepal and Indonesia’s chaos earlier in September.
A Bitcoin open-source developer Under the X handle Callebtc, which works on the messaging service, Says On Sunday, “Bitchat downloaded Spiking in Madagascar,” along with screenshots of protest news scope.
The “BitChat” trending on Google searches
Callebtc bitcoin does not share specific download numbers, but Google Trends is looking for “BitChat” Shut up A spike from 0 to 100 on Friday (more than 90 days) in Madagascar, especially the Antananarivo.
Google Trends Tracks How strong a search term is more than a certain period of time, with 100 highest, and showing “peak popularity,” and 0 showing low interest, or “insufficient data.”
At the same time, the phrases as “BitChat Download” and “How to Use BitChat” are among the top five associated queries, and that are “Breakout Topics,” which means they have a “massive increase” in the activity, according to Google.
Chrome-Stats Show BitChat has been downloading 365,307 times since it launched, with more than 21,000 coming on the last day and more than 71,000 last week. However, it does not specify which regions are responsible for most downloads.
The protests to the strength and reduction of water
Protest exploded In the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, on Thursday, along with several demonstrators arguing with police and theft reports on continuous water and power reduction, resulting in the energy minister that was promising.
Authorities in Madagascar also imposed a curfew at dawn to stop further excitement. Many demonstrations were held Friday and Saturday across the country.
It will only come weeks after a Spike in BitChat Downloads In Nepal In the midst of a series of violent corruption protests, which resulted in a short-lived social media ban and forced to look for other ways to communicate and interact. Indonesia also has a similar uprising on downloads after corruption-related protests exploded.
Most Madagascar’s population does not have Internet access
Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. Outside of a population of just under 32 million, the global technology data platform Estimates With only 6.6 million people in Madagascar with Internet access at the start of 2025.
The platform also estimates that there were more than 18 million mobile connections active in the country in early 2025 and noted that “some of these connections may only include services such as voice and SMS, and some may not include accessing the Internet.”
Related: Decentralized Social Media App to challenge Big Tech’s ‘Walled Gardens’
Dorsey Launched a Beta For Bitchat in July. This Uses Bluetooth Mesh networks For internet-free, encrypted communication, and According to On white paper, the network is completely decentralized with no central servers, accounts, email addresses, phone number to register, or infrastructure dependencies.
Already -encrypted messaging services are faced with EU Control Law
The European Union is in the process of cracking in private messaging services. Lawmakers try to pass a “chat control” law, which break -off -ecrypted messaging, Requires services such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal to allow regulators to screen messages before they can be sent and sent.
May 15 EU countries that support the proposalBut this is not short of the 65% population threshold required for the passage. Germany, holding a pivotal vote, has not yet produced a final stance.
Crypto Advocates Diode CEO Hans Rempel and Brickken’s ELISENA Fabrega Predict the proposal Can drive users towards decentralized web3 platforms Designed for privacy by default.
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