WeChat users want to see evidence behind Trump’s ban on app

Name: Stop offering ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat, Washington urges US tech companies
Uploaded: 2020-09-04T05:40:54.000Z
Duration: 3 min 7 s
Description: Stop offering ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat, Washington urges US tech companies

The Trump administration is arguing the US WeChat Users Alliance is not entitled to any evidence because the executive order has no legal effect on them

President Donald Trump’s order is expected to go into effect on September 20 when the US Commerce Department will delineate what transactions with the app are prohibited

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The US WeChat Users Alliance said President Donald Trump’s August 6 executive order would sunder the primary and often exclusive channel many US residents use to communicate with family and friends in both China and the US. Photo: Bloomberg

Bloomberg

Published: 1:40pm, 4 Sep 2020Updated: 9:30pm, 4 Sep 2020

WeChat users who sued President Donald Trump seeking to block his executive order banning the Chinese messaging app in the US on national security grounds asked to see the evidence supporting his decision.

The US WeChat Users Alliance asked the judge on Thursday to order the government to turn over the evidence on an expedited basis so that they can use it in their bid for a preliminary injunction. The US is opposing the evidence request.

A hearing is scheduled for September 17 in San Francisco federal court on the users’ request for a preliminary injunction. Trump’s order is expected to go into effect on September 20 when the US Commerce Department will delineate exactly what transactions with the app, owned by Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings, are prohibited.

The US is arguing the group is not entitled to any evidence because the executive order has no legal effect on them and courts cannot review national security determinations by the president. Only the Commerce Department’s implementation of the order may be challenged, the government maintains.

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Stop offering ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat, Washington urges US tech companies

Trump’s August 6 order, according to the group, would sunder the primary and often exclusive channel many US residents use to communicate with family and friends in both China and the US.