U.S. Asks Judge to Allow WeChat Ban to Proceed
September 25 2020 - 03:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Katy Stech Ferek
The Trump administration asked a California judge to allow a ban
on the Chinese-owned app WeChat to proceed, citing what it said are
urgent national-security concerns about the Chinese government's
potential collection of data on American users of the app.
In a court-filed request late Thursday, officials asked U.S.
Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler to reverse her earlier determination
that the government's national-security concerns weren't strong
enough to warrant a U.S. ban on the app, owned by tech giant
Tencent Holdings Ltd.
On Sunday, she issued a preliminary injunction preventing U.S.
Commerce Department officials from implementing a ban on WeChat
downloads and other prohibitions designed to erode WeChat's
usefulness. Several WeChat users had sued the federal government
over the proposed ban, saying it violated free-speech
protections.
With their filing, U.S. Justice Department lawyers offered Judge
Beeler new documents they say back up national-security concerns,
including two U.S. reports that they say detail the Chinese
government's espionage operations against the U.S., its influence
over companies such as Tencent and a Chinese legal requirement that
private companies play a role in gathering intelligence and
surveillance.
U.S. officials urged Judge Beeler to lift her earlier
preliminary injunction decision by Oct. 1, a time line that would
still leave the U.S. government time to appeal the case to another
judge. In her earlier decision, Judge Beeler said the U.S.
government hadn't provided enough evidence about its
national-security concerns.
WeChat gives the Chinese government the power "surveil the
American people and collect and use vast swaths of personal and
proprietary information from American users to advance its own
interests," the government lawyers said in court papers filed in
U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Tencent has said it disagrees with the federal government's
security concerns, saying it "incorporates the highest standards of
user privacy and data security."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 25, 2020 15:35 ET (19:35 GMT)
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