Judge Blocks Order Requiring Apple, Google to Remove WeChat From App Stores

President Donald Trump has accused the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok and the WeChat messenger of being tools of the governing Chinese Communist Party and that American users could have their personal data stolen. 

A US judge has blocked a Commerce Department order requiring that Apple and Google remove WeChat from their app stores starting late Sunday from taking effect, Reuters reported. 

WeChat users, who have filed a lawsuit "have shown serious questions going to the merits of the First Amendment claim, the balance of hardships tips in the plaintiffs’ favor", US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in California said in an order. 

The preliminary injunction also blocked the Commerce Department’s order that would have blocked other transactions with WeChat in the United States that could have degraded the site's usability for current US users. 

The decision comes after the Commerce Department said President Donald Trump’s executive orders will efficiently block US users from accessing both applications starting 20 September. For weeks, the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok and several US companies, including Microsoft and Walmart, have been trying to work out a partnership that would satisfy the Trump administration’s concerns on preserving the data of Americans using Chinese media applications. 

In August, Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok and WeChat by 15 September if they are not bought by a US company. The US president claimed that the social media apps are tools of the Chinese Communist Party, which, as Washington maintains, is bent on stealing the personal data of American users. 

This prompted a lawsuit from TikTok challenging a ban on the application in the United States, saying that it had no choice but to protect its rights against US President Donald Trump’s executive order and allegations that it was a national security threat. 

The company stated that the US administration’s move was made without any prior outreach to the application that would have given it a chance to respond to the accusations, thus violating the US Constitution and the firm's right to due process. 

WeChat is a Chinese chat application developed by Tencent that enables its users to stay in touch via video and voice calls, videos, photographs, stickers, and texts. It also supports multiple so-called mini-programmes, basically, apps within the app, which allow it to be used for various other purposes beyond messaging. 

TikTok is an app for uploading and watching short videos, developed by ByteDance. The app is in the leading position in the segment in China and is currently gaining more popularity around the world.