The US District Court of the Northern District of California has denied a motion put forth by the US Justice Department and President Donald Trump to reinstate a ban on Tencent’s WeChat. A US judge halted the ban of the app in September, which meant Apple and Google did not have to remove the app from their respective stores. The US government then filed a motion to reverse that ruling but the court again said that even with the new material provided, there was insufficient evidence backing the need for a ban. As with TikTok, the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the Justice Department has argued that WeChat threatens national security.
The judge said the evidence “supports the conclusion that the restrictions ‘burden substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government’s legitimate interests.’” WeChat users argued the government sought “an unprecedented ban of an entire medium of communication” and offered only “speculation” of harm from Americans’ use of WeChat.
In a similar case, a US appeals court agreed to fast-track a government appeal of a ruling blocking the government from banning new downloads from US app stores of Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok, Reuters reported.
