US JUDGE STOPS GOV’T FRON REMOVING WECHAT FROM APP STORES

A US 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, David Shepardson reported for Reuters.

US 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 US Commerce Department issued a order citing national security grounds to block the app from US 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 US that could have dramatically degraded the site’s usability for current U.S. users or potentially made it unusable. The 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.

The Financial District would like to learn more from its audience. Can you please give us feedback on this article you just read. Click Here to participate in our online survey.