A federal judge in the United States has blocked the Trump administration’s order to ban downloads of the Chinese messaging app WeChat in the country, citing freedom of speech. For more on this and other news around the world, let’s turn to our Kim Jae-hee. Jae-hee, tell us more about the recent developments. Mok-Yeon, a United States.
The Trump administration has alleged these applications threaten national security. It says the app could pass user data to the Chinese government.
Both We-Chat and China has strongly denied the claim. Ten-cent, the conglomerate that owns We-Chat, had previously described the US ban as “unfortunate”.
The ruling comes just after Tik-Tok, which was also named in the Department of Commerce order, reached a deal with US firms Oracle and Wal-Mart to hopefully allow them to keep operating.
A judge in Northern California has issued a preliminary injunction siding with a group of United State based We-Chat users challenging President Trump’s executive order to ban We-Chat.
Judge Laurel Beeler said the ban on We-Chat raised serious questions related to the constitution’s first amendment, guaranteeing free speech. This put a stop on the order the United State Department of Commerce announced on Friday.
To ban We-Chat from United States app stores from late Sunday, effectively shutting it down on national security grounds. The judge said We-Chat is the only means of communication for many Chinese speakers with limited English proficiency, due to of lack of substitute channels.
She also said specific evidence about We-Chat posing a national security threat was “modest”, and added there are alternatives to a complete ban.
Thank you for reading. We hope this gives you a brief understanding of the latest news. Are you interested read about other latest technology-related news? Explore our Technology News blogs for more.
