Judge Blocks Trump’s Order to Ban Chinese Messaging App, WeChat

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A US Judge has blocked an Executive order signed by President Trump seeking to ban the Chinese messaging and payments app, WeChat.

The Chinese app was shut down on Sunday night by the Department of Commerce but US Magistrate Laurel Beeler said the ban violated the first amendment in the constitution which guarantees free speech.

This was after a group of users in the US, came together to challenge President Trump’s order to shut down the app in court.

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The Department of Justice argued that blocking the executive order would amount to frustrating the determination of the US President regarding how best to respond to national security threats.

The Judge however opined that, “while the general evidence about the threat to national security related to China (regarding technology and mobile technology) is considerable, the specific evidence about WeChat is modest.”

The US department of Commerce reiterated that the app was banned to stop the Chinese government from collecting the personal data of American citizens. The department accused WeChat of collecting huge caches of data from its users including network activity, location data, browsing and search history.

According to a statement by the Department of Commerce on Friday,

“The governing Chinese Communist Party “has demonstrated the means and motives to use these apps to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and the economy of the US.”

The mother company of WeChat, Tencent has however denied the accusations saying messages on its app are private.

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