Judge halts Trump administration order banning WeChat from Apple and Google app stores

[Geee]

CNBC

WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge in California halted the Trump administration’s ban on downloads of the Chinese-owned app WeChat early Sunday.

The move blocks the Commerce Department from forcing Apple and Alphabet’s Google to remove Tencent Holding’s WeChat for downloads by Sunday evening.

 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in California said in an order that WeChat users who 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.“

 

Beeler’s preliminary injunction also blocked the Commerce order that would have barred other transactions with WeChat in the United States that could have degraded the site’s usability for current U.S. users.