WeChat Users Alliance, a nonprofit representing the interests of U.S. ![]() "WeChat is effectively the only means of communication for many in the community, not only because China bans other apps, but also because Chinese speakers with limited English proficiency have no options other than WeChat," Beeler wrote in her order, comparing WeChat to "a virtual public square for the Chinese-speaking and Chinese-American community." Users on WeChat also use the app to purchase flights, read the news and transfer money. It is communications and social media platform, and for some the primary way of staying in touch with family in China. While TikTok is primarily used for creating and sharing short, goofy videos among mostly teens and 20-somethings, WeChat is like several different apps combined into one. user data, with a major investment from Walmart. The reprieve for WeChat comes a day after TikTok, an app owned by ByteDance, a company based in China, was rescued in a last-minute deal approved by Trump in which software company Oracle will serve as a custodian of U.S. users addresses those concerns," the judge wrote. "Certainly the government's overarching national-security interest is significant," Beeler wrote, but the Trump administration "has put in scant evidence that its effective ban of WeChat for all U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in Northern California issued a preliminary injunction Sunday morning siding with users of WeChat, who claimed in a lawsuit that Trump's action curbed their First Amendment rights. on midnight Sunday following Trump's order invoking a national emergency and targeting the app on national security grounds.īut U.S. WeChat, used by 1.2 billion users worldwide and 19 million people in the U.S., was set to stop operating in the U.S. Given the imminent harm posed by the executive order, plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to delay and suspend the order's enforcement pending a final determination of its lawfulness, said the organization, noting that issues associated with WeChat can be resolved without a total ban.A federal judge has blocked President Trump's executive order that would have effectively shut down popular Chinese app WeChat, ruling that the action represents a free speech violation. ![]() The threat of civil sanctions of $250,000 and criminal sanctions of $1 million and 20 years in prison for violating the executive order have already frightened, disrupted and imposed costs on the plaintiffs and all WeChat users in the US, said the USWUA. The executive order will take effect on September 20, leaving WeChat users in the US only 30 days to use the app legally. "WeChat is used widely by millions of Chinese Americans to talk to families and friends, to discuss and engage in political activities in the US, to organize and participate in charitable, religious and cultural programs, and to develop and communicate with business clients across the world," it said, noting that these communications on WeChat have no bearing on national security concerns as claimed by Trump. ![]() The executive order aims precisely at severing communications of millions of people in this country, the organization said. The complaint also alleges that Trump has exceeded his authority because the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not allow the president to prohibit any communication, directly or indirectly. The USWUA argues the unprecedented and overreaching executive order violates the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Due Process Clause of the US Constitution, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. What would be the reaction if the President banned, shut down or criminalized the use of Zoom, Messenger, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Instagram by invoking a vague and undefined 'national security' problem since they also collect and analyze user data?" said Bien. "Trump's potential ban of WeChat raises important Constitutional issues not only for my clients, but for all Americans. ![]() Chinese Americans use and every day depend on WeChat as a critical mode of communication, personally and professionally, said Bien. There are critical constitutional protections at stake in this case, Michael Bien, co-counsel for USWUA, said in a press release sent to the Global Times on Saturday. Trump's Executive Order on August 6 will ban the use of WeChat in the US by individual users, businesses and groups starting from September. US WeChat Users Alliance (USWUA), along with one corporate and five individual plaintiffs, will file a federal action against US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in California, seeking to invalidate and delay implementation of the president's WeChat ban.
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