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The popular short video app TikTok is reportedly gearing up to launch a legal challenge against President Trump’s executive order that gave ByteDance 90 days to sell or transfer its TikTok business in the United States.
LOS ANGELES – Some US-based WeChat users are suing President Donald Trump in an attempt to block an executive order they say would effectively prevent access to the hugely popular Chinese messaging app in the United States.
The complaint, filed Friday in San Francisco, is filed by the US nonprofit WeChat Users Alliance and several people who say they rely on the app for work, worship and staying in touch with loved ones in China. The plaintiffs said they were not affiliated with WeChat, nor its parent company, Tencent Holdings.
In the lawsuit, they called on a federal court judge to stop the application of Trump’s executive order, claiming it would violate the freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion and other constitutional rights of his American users.
On August 6, Trump ordered sweeping but vague bans on transactions with the Chinese owners of WeChat and another popular mainstream app, TikTok, claiming they posed a threat to national security, foreign policy and the economy of the United States.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on August 6 (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
TIKTOK FOR CHALLENGE TRUMP ORDER PROHIBITION OF TRANSACTIONS WITH THE APP
The twin executive orders – one for each application – are expected to go into effect on September 20, 45 days after their publication. The orders call on Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is also named as a defendant in the WeChat Users Alliance lawsuit in the United States, to define transactions prohibited by then.
It’s still unclear what the orders will mean for the millions of app users in the United States, but experts have said the orders appear to be meant to exclude WeChat and TikTok from app stores run by Apple and Google. This would make them more difficult to use in the United States
WeChat, which has more than a billion users, is less well known than TikTok to Americans without a connection to China.
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Mobile research company Sensor Tower estimates around 19 million U.S. downloads of the app. But it’s crucial infrastructure for Chinese students and US residents to connect with friends and family in China, and for anyone doing business with China.
In China, WeChat is censored and is expected to adhere to content restrictions set by authorities. Internet monitoring group Citizen Lab in Toronto said WeChat was monitoring files and images shared abroad to facilitate its censorship in China.
Even so, the complaint from the WeChat Users Alliance in the United States argued that losing access to the app would harm the millions of people in the United States who depend on it, noting that this is the only app with an interface designed for Chinese speakers.
“Since the decree, many users, including complainants, have scrambled to find alternatives without success. They are now afraid that by simply communicating with their families, they may break the law and face penalties, ”according to the complaint.
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