Donald Trump asks US court to let ban on Chinese app WeChat to proceed
- Judge earlier issued preliminary injunction after app’s users argued that president’s prohibitions trampled free-speech rights of Chinese-speaking Americans
- Trump has ordered WeChat, which has 19 million US users, to be removed from American app stores on Sunday
US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued a preliminary injunction on September 19 at the behest of users who argued those prohibitions trampled the free-speech rights of millions of Chinese-speaking Americans.
The app, which was supposed to disappear from American stores on Sunday, hosted 19 million regular users in the country and more than a billion worldwide.
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“The Court’s preliminary injunction permits the continued, unfettered use of WeChat, a mobile application that the Executive Branch has determined constitutes a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” government lawyers wrote in their filing on Thursday.
It would allow Beijing to “surveil the American people and collect and use vast swathes of personal and proprietary information from American users to advance its own interests”.
In a separate filing on Friday, the US said it would submit classified information supporting its motion, including an assessment by the Director of National Intelligence.