A US federal judge has approved a request from a group of US WeChat users to delay looming federal government restrictions that could effectively make the popular app nearly impossible to use in the US.
In a ruling dated on Saturday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the US District Court for the Northern District of California said that the government’s actions would affect users’ First Amendment rights, as an effective ban on the app would remove their platform for communication.
WeChat is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
The group of WeChat users requested an injunction after the US Department of Commerce on Friday said that it would bar WeChat from US app stores and keep it from accessing essential Internet services in the country beginning on Sunday at 11:59pm.
They argued that the prohibitions would violate the free-speech rights of millions of Chinese-speaking Americans who rely on it.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted WeChat and another app, TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, for national security and data privacy concerns.
The administration contends that the data of US users collected by the two apps could be shared with the Chinese government.
On Saturday, Trump said that he supported a proposed deal that would have TikTok partner with Oracle and WalMart to form a US company.
There is still a chance that TikTok could be banned in the US as of Nov. 12 if the deal is not completed, under the restrictions put in place by the US Department of Commerce.
However, a restriction to bar TikTok from app stores in the US, similar to what WeChat faced, was pushed back a week to Sunday after Trump backed the latest TikTok deal.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday told Fox News that the government would ensure that under the TikTok-Oracle-WalMart deal, no American’s data would end up in the possession of the Chinese government.
In the WeChat case, the users said that the moves targeting the all-in-one app with instant-messaging, social media and other communication tools would restrict free speech.
WeChat “serves as a virtual public square for the Chinese-speaking and Chinese-American community in the United States and is [as a practical matter] their only means of communication,” Beeler wrote in the ruling, dated Saturday and released early on Sunday.
Effectively banning it “forecloses meaningful access to communication in their community and thereby operates as a prior restraint on their right to free speech,” she wrote.
“Certainly the government’s overarching national-security interest is significant,” she wrote. “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 US users addresses those concerns,” she wrote.
The US government earlier said that it would not be restricting free speech because WeChat users still “are free to speak on alternative platforms that do not pose a national security threat.”
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the injunction.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS