"Restriction on Press Freedom Violates First Amendment"
Preliminary Injunction Halts Download and Usage Ban Ahead of Regulation Deadline on the 20th
[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] A U.S. court has limited the U.S. government's decision to ban the download and use of the Chinese chat app WeChat.
On the 20th (local time), Laurel Beeler, a San Francisco magistrate judge, issued a preliminary injunction halting the U.S. government's ban on downloading and using WeChat, accepting the plaintiffs' position in a lawsuit filed by WeChat users.
The U.S. Department of Commerce had decided to ban the download of the WeChat app from the Apple App Store and Google Play starting at midnight that day. Accordingly, WeChat was scheduled to be removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play starting at midnight.
Judge Beeler stated in the ruling, "There is substantial general evidence of national security threats related to China, but there is little specific evidence regarding WeChat."
Michael Bin, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, argued, "The United States has never shut down major communication networks even during wartime. The ban on WeChat targeting Chinese-American users violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits restrictions on freedom of religion, speech, and the press." The number of WeChat app users in the U.S. reaches 1.9 million.
The WeChat Users Alliance, which filed the lawsuit, immediately welcomed the ruling. The alliance called it an "important and hard-fought victory" for millions of WeChat users in the United States.
The Wall Street Journal evaluated this ruling as a victory for Tencent, the operator of WeChat.
Meanwhile, TikTok, the video-sharing app that was also at risk of being removed along with WeChat, avoided the crisis as the sale negotiations between its parent company ByteDance and U.S. Oracle received approval from the U.S. government.
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