Popular short video program TikTok is often preparing for the launch of a legal challenge against the executive order of President Trump, who gave ByteDance 90 days to sell or spin the same TikTok company in the United States.
LOS ANGELES – Some US-based users of WeChat are pushing President Donald Trump into a bid to block an executive order they say would effectively lead to US access to the hugely popular Chinese messaging app.
The complaint, filed Friday in San Francisco, is being brought by the nonprofit US WeChat Users Alliance and several people who say they rely on the app for work, worship and stay in touch with relatives in China. Plaintiffs said they were not affiliated with WeChat, nor with their parent company Tencent Holdings.
In the lawsuit, they asked a federal judge to stop Trump’s executive order, claiming it would violate American users’ freedom of speech, freedom of religion and other constitutional rights.
Trump on August 6 ordered floating but vague ties on transactions with the Chinese owners of WeChat and another popular consumer app, TikTok, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy and the economy.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 6. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
TICKET TO EXPAND TRUMP ORDER BANNING TRANSACTIONS WITH THE APP
The twin-execution orders – one for each app – are expected to take effect on September 20, or 45 days, from the time they were issued. The orders call on Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is also named as a suspect in the U.S. WeChat Users Alliance lawsuit, to define the prohibited acts by this time.
It remains unclear what the orders will mean for the millions of users of the apps in the US, but experts have said the orders are meant to push WeChat and TikTok out of the app stores run by Apple and Google. That would make them more difficult to use in the US
WeChat, which has more than 1 billion users, is less known as TikTok to Americans without a connection to China.
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Mobile research company Sensor Tower estimates about 19 million US downloads of the app. But it is important infrastructure for Chinese students and residents in the US to make contacts with friends and family in China and for anyone doing business with China.
Within China, WeChat is censored and expected to comply with content restrictions imposed by authorities. The Citizen Lab Internet Watchdog Group in Toronto has said that WeChat checks files and images abroad to aid its censorship in China.
Still, the complaint from the US WeChat Users Alliance claimed that losing access to the app will hurt millions of people in the US who trust it, stating that it is the only app with an interface designed for Chinese speakers.
“Since the executive order, several users, including ours, have struggled to find alternatives without success. “They are now worried that simply by communicating with their families they could break the law and face sanctions,” according to the complaint.
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