U.S. judge halts Trump administration's order to remove WeChat from app stores

[webfact]

U.S. judge halts Trump administration's order to remove WeChat from app stores

By David Shepardson

 

FILE PHOTO: The messenger app WeChat is seen among U.S. flags in this illustration picture taken Aug. 7, 2020. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge early Sunday blocked the Trump administration from requiring Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google to remove Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat for downloads by late Sunday.

 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco said in an order that WeChat users who filed a lawsuit "have shown serious questions going to the merits of the First Amendment claim, the balance of hardships tips in the plaintiffs’ favor."

 

Her 22-page order added the prohibitions "burden substantially more speech than is necessary to serve the government’s significant interest in national security, especially given the lack of substitute channels for communication."

 

On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department had issued a order citing national security grounds to block the app from U.S. app stores owned by Tencent Holding's and the Justice Department had urged Beeler not to block the order. Tencent and the Justice Department did not immediately comment.

 

Beeler's preliminary injunction also blocked the Commerce order that would have barred other transactions with WeChat in the United States that could have dramatically degraded the site's usability for current U.S. users or potentially made it unusable. The U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately comment.

 

WeChat has had an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States, analytics firms Apptopia said in early August. It is popular among Chinese students, Americans living in China and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China.

 

A U.S. judge early Sunday blocked the Trump administration from requiring Apple and Google to remove Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat for downloads by late Sunday. This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.

 

The Justice Department said blocking the order would "frustrate and displace the president’s determination of how best to address threats to national security."

 

Beeler wrote "certainly the government’s overarching national-security interest is significant. But on this record — while the government has established that China’s activities raise significant national security concerns — it has put in scant little evidence that its effective ban of WeChat for all U.S. users addresses those concerns."

 

WeChat is an all-in-one mobile app that combines services similar to Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Venmo. The app is an essential part of daily life for many in China and boasts more than 1 billion users.

 

The Justice Department also argued that WeChat users could switch to other apps or platforms.

 

The WeChat Users Alliance that had sued praised the ruling "as an important and hard-fought victory" for "millions of WeChat users in the U.S."

 

Michael Bien, a lawyer for the users, said "the United States has never shut down a major platform for communications, not even during war times. There are serious First Amendment problems with the WeChat ban, which targets the Chinese American community."

 

He added the order "trampled on their First Amendment guaranteed freedoms to speak, to worship, to read and react to the press, and to organize and associate for numerous purposes."

 

Beeler also noted "there are obvious alternatives to a complete ban, such as barring WeChat from government devices.

 

She added "The regulation — which eliminates a channel of communication without any apparent substitutes — burdens substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government’s significant interest."

 

Separately, the Commerce Department late Saturday said it was delaying enforcement of another order issued Friday that would also have banned U.S. app stores from offering TikTok starting late Sunday.

 

The one-week delay came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday blessed a deal with TikTok owner ByteDance and U.S. companies Oracle Corp and Walmart Inc to create a new company to handle TikTok's U.S. operations.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-21

 

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[Tug]

I have a better idea let’s remove trump from twitter that would make lots of folks happy and relive lots of republicans as well lol

[Thailand]

Oops

[Oldie]

Only NSA approved applications will be allowed. The same is true for any used encryption software. The biggest spy in the world is...

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed. 

 

[Refresh]

How about some reciprocity?  China banned:

 

WhatsApp

Viber

Google

Messenger

Line

Facebook

Twitter

Every other thing they don't control

 

Ban WeChat! 

[Eric Loh]

14 minutes ago, Refresh said:

How about some reciprocity?  China banned:

 

WhatsApp

Viber

Google

Messenger

Line

Facebook

Twitter

Every other thing they don't control

 

Ban WeChat! 

So US is behaving like China. 

[J Town]

26 minutes ago, Refresh said:

How about some reciprocity?  China banned:

 

WhatsApp

Viber

Google

Messenger

Line

Facebook

Twitter

Every other thing they don't control

 

Ban WeChat! 

So you're suggesting two wrongs make a right, that China's behavior is to be emulated?

[BobBKK]

3 minutes ago, J Town said:

So you're suggesting two wrongs make a right, that China's behavior is to be emulated?

and your suggesting USA does nothing?  may as well continue with the intellectual theft too?  the fakes?  and who cares if there's a security risk with a Chinese App eh?  we MUST do the politically correct thing right?

[Eric Loh]

10 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

and your suggesting USA does nothing?  may as well continue with the intellectual theft too?  the fakes?  and who cares if there's a security risk with a Chinese App eh?  we MUST do the politically correct thing right?

The correct thing is to bring forth the evidence as claimed. You seem to know. Please share. 

[BobBKK]

9 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

The correct thing is to bring forth the evidence as claimed. You seem to know. Please share. 

The politically correct thing - please get it right. My view is China bans all those Apps we should do the same - what's the problem?

[Eric Loh]

9 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

The politically correct thing - please get it right. My view is China bans all those Apps we should do the same - what's the problem?

The judge don’t agree with you. 

[Sujo]

27 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

The politically correct thing - please get it right. My view is China bans all those Apps we should do the same - what's the problem?

Like another poster said. You want the US to behave like China.

[Morch]

32 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

The politically correct thing - please get it right. My view is China bans all those Apps we should do the same - what's the problem?

 

What "we"? Does the UK ban or intend to ban such Chinese apps?

[Elkski]

2 hours ago, BobBKK said:

The politically correct thing - please get it right. My view is China bans all those Apps we should do the same - what's the problem?

Let's be like China!  Think! man.

[Thomas J]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

U.S. judge halts Trump administration's order to remove WeChat from app stores

I am so sick of judges many of whom are not elected and even if elected are done so by a small segment of US voters acting like they have the power of GOD to over rule the President of the USA.  If the Judge wants to get into the Legislative Process let him/her run for office and propose legislation not edicts from the bench. 

[stevenl]

26 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

I am so sick of judges many of whom are not elected and even if elected are done so by a small segment of US voters acting like they have the power of GOD to over rule the President of the USA.  If the Judge wants to get into the Legislative Process let him/her run for office and propose legislation not edicts from the bench. 

They rule over the law.

[Eric Loh]

34 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

I am so sick of judges many of whom are not elected and even if elected are done so by a small segment of US voters acting like they have the power of GOD to over rule the President of the USA.  If the Judge wants to get into the Legislative Process let him/her run for office and propose legislation not edicts from the bench. 

Separation of powers in a democracy is to prevent abuse of power and to safeguard your freedom. You can only be sick if those separation boundaries are being blurred by intimidation and partisanship.  

[Dumbastheycome]

4 hours ago, Thomas J said:

I am so sick of judges many of whom are not elected and even if elected are done so by a small segment of US voters acting like they have the power of GOD to over rule the President of the USA.  If the Judge wants to get into the Legislative Process let him/her run for office and propose legislation not edicts from the bench. 

So you approve of Dictators?

A Judge is so called as a person  who with the expectation of  all best wisdom  interprets a legal situation according to written law as exists and in intent.

If the outcome of legal scrutiny of a desired stipulation  (edict) from even a President who by oath of  office supposedly acts in accordance to law and in all the protection of citizens those laws  provide then to object  to a carte blanche dictate with dubious justification by said POTUS suggests law and legal application of is exercising the power of God ?

Apply the context of your opinion and welcome a North Korean situation !

If the criteria applied to the elevation of those people whose  peers qualify them to be Judges were to be applied  to those who aspire  to be POTUS history  would likely be a quite different reality. 

History  may yet put the  current  POTUS in a corrected social status!

 

 

[Scott]

Troll posts removed.  

 

[DB58]

10 hours ago, Sujo said:

Like another poster said. You want the US to behave like China.

Honestly not sure what side I agree with... but I disagree that the US is behaving like China. China banned what it doesn’t control, the President is wanting to ban what China controls, not what USA does not control; seem to be a huge difference to me. 

[Morch]

7 hours ago, DB58 said:

Honestly not sure what side I agree with... but I disagree that the US is behaving like China. China banned what it doesn’t control, the President is wanting to ban what China controls, not what USA does not control; seem to be a huge difference to me. 

 

Seems like what the President wants is to score political points. Suddenly not so many issues with TikTok, and legal team can't get it right (again) with regard to online app shops. Pathetic.

[BobBKK]

On 9/21/2020 at 4:10 PM, Elkski said:

Let's be like China!  Think! man.

Let's be BETTER than China!  Understand! man.

[The Barmbeker]

So!

Much!

Winning!

[onthedarkside]

A long series of off-topic posts regarding U.S. protests has been removed, as will any future similarly off-topic posts here.