A California judge on Sunday blocked the US Department of Commerce from enforcing President Donald Trump’s executive order that requires the Chinese messenger WeChat to be removed from app stores in the US.
The Trump administration says that WeChat is a national security threat, as it allegedly sends massive amounts of data to the Chinese government. The Commerce Department had ordered for the messenger to be removed from Apple and Google's app stores in the US.
However, hours before the ban was set to come into effect, US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the Northern California District Court issued an injunction on Sunday blocking the removal, saying that the move raised "serious questions" about free speech.
The lawsuit was brought by a group of WeChat users, who argued that there is no alternative app for Chinese Americans to communicate with. They also claimed that without updates from the Android and Apple app stores, WeChat would be essentially unusable.
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