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WeChat app store ban: US judge Laurel Beeler says 'not inclined' to reverse decision
- Last month, US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued a preliminary injunction blocking a ban on Tencent’s WeChat
- Beeler says she does not think a new filing by the Justice Department ‘changes the outcome’ or changes her analysis
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A US judge in San Francisco on Thursday said she was “not inclined” to reverse her decision blocking the government from barring Apple and Alphabet’s Google from offering WeChat for download in US app stores.
US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said at a hearing that she did not think a new filing by the Justice Department “changes the outcome” or changes her analysis.
Last month, Beeler issued a preliminary injunction blocking the US Commerce Department order which was set to take effect late on September 20 in a suit brought by WeChat users.
The Justice Department has appealed Beeler’s order to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but no ruling is likely before December.
The Commerce Department order would also bar other US transactions with Tencent Holding’s WeChat, potentially making the app unusable in the United States.
The Justice Department argues Beeler’s order “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”.
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