US Judge blocks Trump administration's ban on WeChat

A Federal judge has blocked Trump administration's executive order which enforced ban on downloads and operation of Chinese messaging app WeChat from Sunday midnight.

US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said the the ban imposed a threat to the constitution's first amendment which guarantees free speech.

WeChat, owned by Chinese firm Tencent, was set to stop operating in the U.S. on midnight Sunday following Trump's order which cited the app was a threat to national security.

Beeler was referring to a lawsuit filed by WeChat users who questioned Trump's actions with respect to the First Amendment Rights

"Certainly the government's overarching national-security interest is significant," Beeler wrote, but the Trump administration "has put in scant evidence that its effective ban of WeChat for all U.S. users addresses those concerns," the judge wrote.

WeChat is used by 1.9 billion people around the globe and 19 million people in America. The app is a multipurpose platform providing communication, flight booking, news, and money transfer services among others. The app also serves as a virtual public square for the Chinese-speaking and Chinese-American community.

"WeChat is effectively the only means of communication for many in the community, not only because China bans other apps, but also because Chinese speakers with limited English proficiency have no options other than WeChat," Beeler wrote in her order.

The lawsuit, filed by WeChat Users Alliance in America, pointed Trump's statements wherein he mocked China over coronavirus pandemic, calling it the "China Virus" and "Kung Flu".

The reprieve comes a day after Donald Trump saved TikTok, an app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, and said that he has accepted TikTok-Oracle partnership deal in the US.

In her order, Beeler mentioned that there are certain signification evidence that some Chinese technologies which do pose a legitimate national security threat to the United States, however, asserted that WeChat is modest.