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A U.S. judge blocked the government’s ban on WeChat downloads on Sunday, hours before it took effect in an ongoing technology and espionage battle between Washington and Beijing.
The Trump administration had ordered a ban on downloads from the WeChat messaging platform, as well as the popular video-sharing app TikTok, both owned by Chinese companies. Both bans have now been lifted.
A California court ruling said it granted a “motion for a nationwide injunction against implementation” of the government order on WeChat, and the judge cited concerns about free speech.
The order would have slowed down WeChat and made it unusable in the United States for video conferencing with family and friends, according to experts.
WeChat, owned by tech giant Tencent, has around 19 million daily active users in the United States.
When contacted by AFP, Tencent declined to comment on the ruling.
The ruling “is a short-term relief to the plaintiffs, who wanted to make sure the application was not closed tonight,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
If the government appeals and wins, the plaintiffs can appeal that decision. “The plaintiffs just wanted to buy time,” Tobias said. “It may be very soon that the president is no longer the president.”
As President Donald Trump seeks a breakthrough with voters to win a second term in the Nov.3 election, he has increasingly put national security and his aggressive stance toward China at the center of his campaign.
He regularly accuses Democratic opponent Joe Biden of weakness towards Beijing.
The president said on Saturday that he approved a deal that allows Silicon Valley giant Oracle to become a TikTok data partner to avoid shutting down that app.
The agreement, announced by the companies, includes Walmart as a business partner and would create a new American company called TikTok Global.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, confirmed Oracle’s deal, which came as companies rushed to meet Sunday’s deadline.
The US Department of Commerce announced on Saturday that it would postpone the ban on TikTok downloads until September 27, due to “recent positive developments.”
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday accused China of using the two apps “to threaten national security, foreign policy and the US economy.”
WeChat is “used primarily by Chinese who visit or work here or by Chinese-Americans who keep in touch with their relatives,” said William Reinsch of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
That includes several hundred thousand Chinese students in the United States, who use it for daily online conversations.
Trump has often claimed, without providing evidence, that TikTok and WeChat are collecting user data for Beijing.
In early August, he gave ByteDance until September 20 to hand over TikTok’s US operations to an American company.
The TikTok brand of wacky short phone videos has become a global phenomenon, especially among young people, with 100 million users in the United States alone.
China on Saturday condemned the “intimidation” by the United States, saying it violated international trade rules and that there was no evidence of any security threat.
China also released its long-awaited “list of untrustworthy entities,” seen as a weapon for Beijing to retaliate against the United States.
The Trump administration has used its own “list of entities” to exclude Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from the US market, in addition to recent measures against TikTok and WeChat.
US officials have described Washington’s crackdown as essential to guarding against potential Chinese espionage through the platforms.
According to the US Treasury, the TikTok deal has yet to be finalized by the companies involved and approved by a federal committee on national security.
day / cjc / bgs / bbk / to / mdl
