Appeals Court rejects immediate WeChat ban sought by Trump administration

A US appeals court has decided that the China-owned messaging app WeChat will live to see another day.

A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Justice Department request to ban Apple and Google’s app stores from offering the mega-popular messaging app, saying in its order that the Trump administration has not shown Americans would “suffer an imminent, irreparable injury during the pendency of this appeal.”

Last week, a federal judge in San Francisco rejected a Justice Department request to reverse her decision preventing the WeChat ban sought by the US Commerce Department in response to a lawsuit filed by WeChat users.

The WeChat users said the ruling will avoid an “unprecedented shutdown of a major platform for communications relied on by millions of people in the United States.”

President Trump in August signed an executive order banning transactions involving WeChat, which is owned by Tencent, saying that it “may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party.”

The appeals court said the case will be placed on its January 2021 calendar.

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