The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday (Sept. 25) asked a federal judge in San Francisco to uphold the administration’s injunction to remove the Chinese social media app WeChat from U.S. app stores and to stop the trading function of WeChat (overseas version).
Justice Department: WeChat poses national security threat
In documents filed in court, the U.S. Justice Department asked San Francisco District Court Judge Laurel Beeler to suspend enforcement of her preliminary ruling, which was issued last Saturday.
The filing also said that Beeler’s ruling “allows WeChat to continue to be used without restriction. The administration has determined that this mobile application poses a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.
In a filing to the court, White House lawyers argued that allowing WeChat to continue to be used normally in the United States would lead Beijing to “spy on the American people and collect and exploit the vast amount of personal information” of U.S. users to advance China’s interests.
Judge Buehler: White House’s Suggestions Not Well-Founded
However, after hearing the case last Saturday, Judge Biehler concluded that while national security interests are important, the administration did not provide sufficient evidence that an effective ban on WeChat for all U.S. users would solve those problems.
In her ruling, Biehler noted that the Commerce Department’s ban raises serious questions about the First Amendment to the Constitution and thus affects free speech.
She issued a preliminary ruling staying the removal of the WeChat app from Apple’s and Google’s app stores, while allowing U.S. users to continue to use WeChat for transactions related to those mentioned in the Commerce Department’s ban.
Netizens: Chinese use free speech rights to defend a platform without free speech
The lawsuit was initiated by the U.S. WeChat Users Alliance, a group of U.S. WeChat users.
The group argues that the WeChat ban “tramples on the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom to read, freedom to respond to the media, and freedom to organize and associate for all purposes.”
The group’s lawyer said, “The United States has never shut down a major communications platform, not even during wartime. There are serious First Amendment problems with the ban on WeChat targeting the Chinese American community.”
WeChat has 19 million users in the U.S. and more than 1 billion users worldwide. The main reason for its popularity is that it can meet various needs of consumers in their daily lives. In addition to providing people with chat room services, WeChat can also be used to order plane tickets, train tickets, hotels, find cabs, charge cell phones, deliver utilities and other daily payment functions.
However, WeChat, like other social media in China, is subject to extensive and strict speech control, and any comments that do not conform to the official stance will be blocked or accounts closed. In severe cases, users or group owners who make “inappropriate comments” can be prosecuted by security authorities and punished or sentenced to prison.
Therefore, the lawsuit filed by the WeChat User Alliance in the San Francisco District Court has attracted widespread public attention. After the court’s preliminary ruling, there were polarized reactions on the Internet. While some agreed that it was a victory for America’s constitutional right to protect free speech, many opposed it. They called the judicial battle an ironic example of “the Chinese using their right to freedom of speech to defend a platform where there is no freedom of speech,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on Monday about the U.S. government’s action to block WeChat that China urges the United States to respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, abide by international trade rules and stop politicizing normal trade and economic cooperation.
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