On the 24th of May, a US judge ruled that the Trump administration may not block WeChat.
This follows a request from the US federal government’s Department of Justice to remove the famous multipurpose software from software stores.
The Trump administration can’t block WeChat! One-Judge Ruling: Americans Can Continue to Download, Use
A judge in San Francisco rejected a decision by the United States Department of Justice on 24 January. The decision required Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to remove the software download service from their software application stores in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Biller said the new evidence from the federal government did not change her mind about the chat application. The U.S. Department of Justice has recently and repeatedly stated that it considers chat software to be a national security threat, just as it does with some video applications.
The popular chat application has an average of 19 million active users per day in the United States. It is extremely important popular chat software among international students, immigrants, foreign workers, and even Americans living in Asia Pacific and some Americans with personal or business activities in Asia Pacific.
The Trump administration can’t block WeChat! One-Judge Ruling: Americans Can Continue to Download, Use
This chat app is considered by the US tech community to be a highly integrated mobile application that concentrates the services of a variety of US software such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Venmo. For many, this feature-rich software is an essential part of everyday life, with a total of more than one billion users.
The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed Judge Bieler’s decision to allow continued use of the chat-phone app to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it is unlikely that the court will issue a ruling before December. If this escalation continues, the US Supreme Court will eventually enter the vortex of hearing and deciding the matter.
In a lawsuit filed by concerned users of the software, Judge Bühler last month blocked a blocking order by the U.S. Commerce Department that would have gone into effect on Sept. 20, requiring the software to be removed from U.S. app stores.
The Commerce Department’s order would also prohibit the U.S. from entering into other deals with related software developers, which could make the app unavailable in the U.S., such as if it loses its payment feature, which could prevent a large number of users from using the software.
The Trump administration can’t block WeChat! One-Judge Ruling: Americans Can Continue to Download, Use
Among the final ruling, Bieler wrote: “The record before me does not support the conclusion (by the Justice Department) that the government ‘narrowly tailored’ the prohibited transactions, claiming they were to protect its national security interests.”
She said the evidence “supports the conclusion that the restrictions ‘go far beyond what is necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the U.S. government.'”
Users of the chat app argued that the U.S. government was seeking “an unprecedented ban on an entire communications medium” and only engaged in unfounded “speculation” about the dangers of Americans using the chat app.
In a similar case, a United States Court of Appeals granted expedited consideration to the United States Government’s appeal of a court ruling that barred the Trump administration from using the chatbot. The court ruled that the Trump administration was prohibited from blocking a well-known video-sharing application among mobile software application stores in the United States.
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