On the evening of the 25th, Reuters reported that the US Department of Justice is seeking to immediately ban the download of WeChat from Apple and Google app stores. The Department of Justice said that the Chinese-owned messaging service poses a threat to US security.

US Justice Department seeks to ban WeChat again

As early as August 6, US President Trump issued an executive order, stating that within 45 days, any person or entity in the United States would be prohibited from engaging in any WeChat-related transactions with Tencent Holdings and its subsidiaries, but the scope of the "transactions" was not specified.

On September 18th local time, the US Department of Commerce issued a statement saying that starting from September 20th local time, the two applications TikTok and WeChat will be banned from downloading in the United States.

However, unlike TikTok, which has many users in the United States but few stakeholders, WeChat has only 19 million users in the United States, but many stakeholders, including American companies, small businesses, and users, are all opposed. American users even set up a non-profit organization called the "American WeChat User Association" (hereinafter referred to as the "American WeChat User Association") to actively appeal.

Before the ban was implemented, the California court held an emergency hearing. After listening to the heated debate between the union's lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice, the judge officially issued a ruling to restrict the implementation of the ban across the United States.

However, the very next day, the US Department of Commerce said the government would raise an objection to this.

On the 25th, the US Department of Justice formally objected to the ban.

The complaint asks U.S. District Judge Laurel Beeler to stay a preliminary injunction she issued on Saturday, Reuters reported. The order blocked a Commerce Department order set to take effect later on Sept. 20 that would have also barred other U.S. transactions with Tencent Holdings' WeChat, potentially rendering the app unusable in the United States.

The Justice Department filing said Beeler’s order was erroneous and “permits continued, unrestricted use of WeChat, a mobile application that the executive branch has determined poses a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

To support its argument, the Justice Department made public parts of a Sept. 17 Commerce Department memo outlining the WeChat transactions that would be banned. The memo said: “The WeChat mobile application collects and transmits sensitive personal information of Americans, which is accessible to Tencent and stored in data centers in China and Canada.”

Beeler said the WeChat users who filed the lawsuit "raise serious questions about the value of the First Amendment."

“The First Amendment does not prohibit regulation of WeChat simply because it has achieved the level of popularity and dependence that (China) seeks, precisely to enable it to spy on its users, promote its propaganda, and place U.S. national security at risk,” the Justice Department filing said.

The administration asked Beeler to issue a quick ruling by no later than Oct. 1 to suspend her order pending her appeal.

Tencent declined to comment.

However, the American WeChat Users Association is not satisfied. They said they had already expected this day to come and they were ready.

The battle to defend WeChat will continue

At the same time, the request made by the Ministry of Justice also means that WeChat's survival in the United States will face challenges again. But the final result will have to wait for time to judge. After all, WeChat is not easy to ban.

First, WeChat is not a mainstream application in the United States, and even compared with TikTok's 100 million monthly active users, it is far behind. For Tencent, the importance and advertising revenue of the overseas version of WeChat are far from comparable to those in China.

When the United States proposed to ban WeChat on August 6, Tencent said there was no need to worry too much.

Tencent said that the US market accounts for less than 2% of the company's global revenue, and advertising revenue contributed by the US market accounts for less than 1% (of all advertising revenue).

In other words, the US government’s executive order does not actually pose a big blow to Tencent.

However, given the size, business scope and investment portfolio of Tencent, the company behind WeChat, it is impossible for the United States to directly ban it without regard for the consequences. The executive order prohibits "transactions with Tencent related to WeChat", which is also a rather vague concept and has a lot of room for maneuver.

What American companies cannot ignore in particular is the vast Chinese consumer market connected by WeChat.

According to the Wall Street Journal, on August 11 local time, executives from more than a dozen large American multinational companies, including Apple, Ford, Walmart, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Intel, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and UPS, spoke with White House officials to lobby.

These companies are involved in different industries such as chips, consumer electronics, retail, finance and insurance.

Back then, Apple and WeChat negotiated over the issue of Apple tax, and in the end Apple gave up its share of WeChat rewards. This shows the importance of WeChat to the Chinese market.

On the contrary, banning WeChat may significantly reduce Apple's sales in the Chinese market. Leifeng.com also mentioned in a previous report that China is almost Apple's largest source of consumption.

In this regard, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted in August that if WeChat is completely removed from the Apple App Store, Chinese consumers will buy fewer iPhones in the future. According to pessimistic estimates, iPhone shipments will decline by 25-30%; according to optimistic estimates, iPhone shipments will decline by 3-6%.

Finally, there is still resistance from Chinese Americans.

WeChat has built a relatively solid community of commercial interests with its huge coverage and business ecosystem. It can be said that as long as American companies do business in China, they will inevitably need WeChat to reach China's 1.2 billion consumers. No company doing business in China can ignore the importance of WeChat to Chinese consumers.

At the same time, WeChat is a social network used by almost all Chinese people around the world, so it has formed a strong user stickiness. For them, WeChat has no substitute.

Although Trump will not give up, it is still not easy to completely ban WeChat.

Attached is the announcement of the American Microelectronics Association:

After the US Micro-Enterprise Association successfully obtained a preliminary injunction from the federal court last Sunday, September 20, the WeChat rights protection lawsuit was once again in turmoil with the motion submitted to the court by the US Department of Justice yesterday. As the US Micro-Enterprise Association's legal team predicted last Sunday, the US government did not give up because of the issuance of the preliminary injunction because both parties involved had to pay a huge price. Yesterday, the US Department of Justice submitted a motion on behalf of the White House to the Northern District of California Federal Court to apply for a suspension of the implementation of the preliminary injunction.

The main reason for the Justice Department's motion is that WeChat poses a significant threat to national security. The motion is accompanied by a 37-page written testimony provided by a senior official in charge of security affairs at the Ministry of Commerce.

The motion will also be heard by Judge Beeler, who issued the preliminary injunction last Sunday. If the judge continues to agree to maintain the injunction issued on Sunday, the US government can choose to immediately appeal to the Federal Ninth Circuit Court, but in the appeal, the US government will no longer be able to submit new evidence. It is worth noting that the Department of Justice submitted a confidential document that must be reviewed by the judge unilaterally. This evidence will not be disclosed to the plaintiff and the public. For a case of such important public interest, the motivation and timing of submitting such evidence are questionable.

After reviewing the motion submitted by the government, the lawyers of the US Micro-Enterprise Association believe that it has two purposes. The first is to provide new evidence to try to prove again the threat of WeChat to national security, and the second is to complete the procedural requirements for the next appeal. Next, Judge Bieler will coordinate the prosecution and defense to finalize the opening date of the next hearing.

As mentioned before, our legal team had already predicted the arrival of this day, and have been prepared for it and will resolutely safeguard our hard-earned victory.

As of 4:00 p.m. on September 21, the American Micro-Electronics Association has raised $1,009,765.69, which not only paid the $272,246.21 in legal fees owed in August, but also the $270,000 legal fee fundraising target for September has been completed, so fundraising is suspended. If the legal battle and the operation of the American Micro-Electronics Association need financial support in the future, we will inform the public at that time. The American Micro-Electronics Association would like to thank all the people from all walks of life who support our actions for their help!

Therefore, facing the counterattack of the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Micro-enterprise Association and our legal team are full of confidence. The last time we faced the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Micro-enterprise Association was short of funds and had a strong team but was weak, but we still achieved historic results. This time, with the strong support of Chinese Americans, we have sufficient "food and ammunition". The lawyers in the legal team are ready to fight and are ready to fight again, just waiting for the second heavy blow to protect the rights of Chinese Americans and fight against discrimination!

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