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Oil giant Chevron asks global employees to delete WeChat after Trump ban

  • Chevron identified WeChat as a ‘non-compliant application’ in a staff email, asking those who have installed the app on their work handsets to delete it
  • WeChat was supposed to disappear from US app stores on September 20 under Trump’s executive order, but a San Francisco judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt the ban

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WeChat, the popular multipurpose app from Tencent Holdings, has about 19 million regular users in the United States. Photo: EPA-EFE
Bloomberg
Chevron Corp has asked its global employees to remove Tencent Holdings’ WeChat from their work phones, making it one of the first US companies to heed the Trump administration’s executive order banning the Chinese social app because of national security risks.
The American oil giant identified WeChat as a “non-compliant application” in a staff email, asking those who have installed the app on their work handsets to delete it within days – or they will be disconnected from the company’s network, according to the memo viewed by Bloomberg News.

“Due to a recent Executive Order banning the use of WeChat, Chevron is requiring that you remove the application from your mobile device,” said the memo, which also identifies the operating system and model of each employee’s phone. “If no action is taken, prior to September 27, 2020, your access to the Chevron system will be removed.”

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A Chevron representative declined to comment. Tencent said it had no comment in response to a separate Post inquiry on Wednesday.

Chevron Corp’s Pascagoula Refinery, located in the state of Mississippi, is seen in this photo from September 4, 2018. The company requires employees who have installed WeChat on their work handset to remove the app before September 27, or get disconnected from its internal network. Photo: Reuters
Chevron Corp’s Pascagoula Refinery, located in the state of Mississippi, is seen in this photo from September 4, 2018. The company requires employees who have installed WeChat on their work handset to remove the app before September 27, or get disconnected from its internal network. Photo: Reuters
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WeChat has emerged as a top target in US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on China ahead of the country’s November elections. Tensions between Washington and Beijing are escalating, as his administration wages a campaign that has also ensnared Chinese start-up ByteDance and its popular short-video service TikTok.
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