Banning of We Chat and the Violation of Rights

By Melody Hong of 12-Sobriety

Graphic by Audrey Sanchez

IT IS without question that China has long been censoring and restricting social media apps created by the West. Ironically, in August 2020, the Trump administration requested the Federal Supreme Court of the United States to execute the banning of We Chat and Tik Tok - both of which are China’s homegrown apps. They claimed that these apps would threaten not only the privacy of American, but also incur confidential information from the Federal government.

Aside from the issue of privacy, the online payment method of WeChat provides competition and puts American banks at risk. When the United States announced that they will impose the banning of WeChat, Chinese immigrants formed an organization called US WeChat users Alliance, which filed a complaint in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to address that banning of WeChat has violated their rights. According to the US WeChat users Alliance, the banning has threatened users’ freedom of speech and religion, as well as their constitutional rights. Laurel Beeler, a Federal judge from California, was unable to reach a clear conclusion on the case so from the current point of view, WeChat users in the United States can still use Chinese social software.

众所周知，中国一直抵制美国各类社交网站，比如脸书、Youtube、Instagram等软件，而美方却从未对此采取措施或给予回应。但在今年的八月份，美国政府也给中国“摆了一道”，他们向法院申请了针对微信该社交软件的禁令，并给出的解释为该软件足以威胁美国的国家安全。美国政府认为该手机应用程序会对美国公民的个人用户数据安全构成实际性的影响，而这些数据也可能会被上交给中国政府，由此达到机密信息以及隐私的泄漏。同时，微信软件里提供的线上支付带来的便利也让美国的银行逐渐恐慌，因为越来越多的人选择使用微信钱包，而不再使用银行卡存款及支付，这可能会直接导致美国各大银行开始走下坡路。

在美国宣布对微信的禁令后，在美国的华人微信用户组织了一个叫“非盈利组织美国微信用户”的联盟。该组织向旧金山加州北区联邦法院递交了诉状并申请了对美国总统特朗普行政命令提出临时禁制令。他们也控诉了该禁令已经涉嫌到在美微信用户的言论自由、宗教信仰自由以及其他宪法权利。比勒(Laurel Beeler)，一名加州联邦法官在无法对此案下定明确的结论下，先暂时并搁置了该禁止令的实施。所以从目前来看，在美国的微信用户还是可以使用中国的社交软件。