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WeChat Ban Will Stay on Hold, Ninth Circuit Rules

Finding no risk of incurable harm to national security, a Ninth Circuit panel on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to stay an injunction temporarily blocking its ban on the Chinese messaging app WeChat.

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Finding no risk of incurable harm to national security, a Ninth Circuit panel on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to stay an injunction temporarily blocking its ban on the Chinese messaging app WeChat.

“On the record before us, appellants have not demonstrated that they will suffer an imminent, irreparable injury during the pendency of this appeal, which is being expedited,” a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel wrote in a terse, four-paragraph order.

The decision by Circuit Judges William Fletcher, Marsha Berzon and Jay Bybee comes three days after a federal magistrate judge similarly denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay. Fletcher and Berzon are Bill Clinton appointees. Bybee was appointed by George W. Bush.

“Now all four federal judges who have looked at this emergency stay petition by the government have found that the balance of hardships tips in favor of the First Amendment interests of my clients and not to the quite vague and speculative national security concerns raised by the government,” attorney Michael Bien, who represents WeChat users, said in a phone interview Monday.

More than 19 million Americans use WeChat, one of the few social media apps the Chinese government allows to operate within its borders, and which enables people in the U.S. to communicate with friends and relatives in China.

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Aug. 6 calling for the U.S. Commerce Department to ban the popular Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat, claiming they pose threats to national security based on the Chinese government’s ability to collect Americans’ data and censor content.

A group called the U.S. WeChat Users Alliance and six individual WeChat users sued the Trump administration on Aug. 21, arguing the ban would unconstitutionally restrict their right to communicate with others and exchange thoughts and ideas on the WeChat app in violation of the First Amendment. 

On Sept. 18, two days before the ban was set to take effect, the U.S. Commerce Department unveiled new regulations that made it illegal for U.S. app stores to offer downloads or updates of the WeChat app. Users who already have the app could keep using it, though it would eventually become defunct without updates. 

One day later, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued a preliminary injunction temporarily halting the ban before it could take effect. She found the WeChat Users Alliance "raised serious questions” as to whether the ban violates their First Amendment rights. She also found the evidence that WeChat poses a national security threat “modest.”

“On this record, the regulation — which eliminates a channel of communication without any apparent substitutes — burdens substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government’s significant interest,” Beeler wrote in her 22-page ruling

The Trump administration immediately sought a stay pending appeal, arguing that without a WeChat ban, the Chinese government would use the app to “surveil the American people and collect and use vast swaths of personal and proprietary information from American users to advance its own interests.” 

The Trump administration also submitted a classified risk assessment on the national security threat posed by the WeChat app for Beeler to review behind closed doors.

In an 18-page ruling issued Friday, Beeler found the risk assessment “illuminates the threat” that WeChat owner Tencent poses to national security, but she found the proposed restrictions were not narrowly tailored to address the threat without impeding users’ First Amendment rights. 

Beeler cited testimony by software and networking engineers who recommended ways to mitigate national security threats by storing user data on a U.S.-located server, using best practices for data security and performing regular audits.

Documents disclosed in support of the Trump administration’s motion for a stay revealed that Tencent had proposed all of those options so it could continue operating in the U.S., according to plaintiffs’ attorney Bien.

“The government revealed and has now confirmed that Tencent made a very significant mitigation proposal to the U.S government addressing what our experts say is each and every security concern that the government has raised,” Bien said.

Bien, of the firm Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld in San Francisco, added that banning app stores from offering security updates for WeChat also makes users’ data less secure.

A mere three days after Judge Beeler’s decision, the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel reached a similar conclusion, finding no risk of irreparable harm to national security.

The Ninth Circuit has fast-tracked the appeal. The Trump administration’s opening brief is due Friday. Oral arguments are scheduled to take place in January.

The U.S. Commerce Department and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Follow @NicholasIovino
Categories / Appeals, Government, International, Law, Technology

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