Mobile Phone News

U.S. government asks judge to reverse injunction that prevents it from banning WeChat in the states

by
Zaylee Amalia
10/03/2020

WeChat is the most popular and widely used application in the world. More than one billion people in China use the app to browse the Internet, shop online, send and receive messages, and much more. U.S. companies such as Disney and Walmart use WeChat to make payments and communicate with their customers in China. Tencent Holdings, the developer of the app, is a Chinese company that explains why the U.S. government intends to ban the use of the app. Many Chinese companies are accused of collecting personal data from Americans and U.S. companies as national security threats. Send that data to Beijing.

U.S. urges judge to overturn basic injunction barring US from banning WeChat from US app stores

In addition to the companies mentioned above, in the provinces, millions of Chinese-speaking Americans use the term (ultimately 19 million) and the app they use to communicate with friends and family eventually run the risk of going home. The plan created by the White House will allow them to continue using the app already installed on their phone, but remove it from the WeChat iOS App Store and the Android-based Google Play Store in the US. Loading the app in the provinces will prevent existing users from updating the app when needed and will eventually force these subscribers to abandon WeChat usage altogether.

The U.S. asks judge to overturn the ruling on preliminary injunction banning WeChat app

WeChat was due to be removed from U.S. app stores on September 20, thanks to an executive order signed by the president. That day, however, U.S. Magistrates Judge Laurel Bealer issued a preliminary injunction restraining the ban. In giving the verdict, Bealer cited the debt as a violation of the right to free speech of Americans who use the term. Judge Beeler is still considering the administration’s request to delay the enforcement of her decision, and the U.S. government is appealing her decision. WeChat users in the U.S. are not happy about the judge’s decision to issue an injunction preventing her from enforcing her original injunction, as a decision by the Court of Appeals is pending. The group also alleges that the administration is trying to ban the term because of the politics of the election year. According to Bloomberg, The U.S. WeChat User Alliance says the U.S. government has so far provided no evidence that WeChat is spying on Americans.

Lawyer Orney Clay Shu, who represents American WeChat users, says the government is “urgently seeking an initial injunction but has had 12 days to file an appeal. If WeChat really represents a threat to national security, the government claims it’s fundamental.” The enjoining order should have been appealed on the same day or the next day, but the reality is that there is no emergency.

Today, in a San Francisco federal court that issued a preliminary injunction restraining U.S. WeChat users from banning the app, the Trump administration demanded that the ban on the app be reinstated. The judge will have to rule on the request and ask that her injunction be stayed. Although the president is battling COVID-19 at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, the wheels of justice are moving forward despite the lack of a timeline for when these decisions should be made.

The Justice Department ruled that Judge Bealer’s decision on a preliminary injunction was incorrect because it allowed WeChat, a mobile application that the Executive Branch had determined was a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy, to continue to operate without interruption.