It’s what the Supreme Court has called a “prior restraint” on expression - one of the most serious and least tolerable infringements on First Amendment rights. Our brief in support of the WeChat users makes two key arguments about why the government’s ban violates the First Amendment.įirst, the ban prohibits people from speaking or expressing themselves before they can even do so. The government then appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit. Instead, the administration’s stated goal is to make it impossible to use WeChat in its entirety.Īfter the coalition of WeChat users challenged the ban in court, the district court found that there were substantial questions about the constitutionality of the ban, and the court issued a preliminary order that prevented it from going into effect. But the Trump administration made no attempt to address this concern in a way that would minimize interference with WeChat users’ speech, as the First Amendment requires. In the case of WeChat, there is also some legitimate concern about whether user data is accessible by the Chinese government. Concern about how this data is used and protected is warranted. As we explained at the time, WeChat, like many U.S.-owned social media and messaging apps, including Facebook and Instagram, does collect broad categories of user data. In August 2020, the Trump administration issued an executive order declaring WeChat a threat to national security. For many of WeChat’s users, the app is their primary or only source of communication with friends and family in China, where the government blocks popular messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It hosts an enormous community - more than one billion users worldwide - that simply can’t be replicated. The app is no ordinary communications tool: It’s also a platform for social media, news, money transfers, and e-commerce. Nineteen million Americans, primarily Chinese Americans, rely on WeChat daily to call and message with friends, family, and colleagues. It applies here because WeChat users depend on the app for a wide variety of speech and expression. The First Amendment protects our freedom of speech. Our friend-of-the-court brief, filed in support of a group of WeChat users who have challenged the ban, explains why the administration’s actions violate the First Amendment. On Friday, we and the ACLU of Northern California asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the Trump administration’s autocratic effort to ban WeChat. That’s exactly what the Trump administration is attempting to do with WeChat, a communications app that millions of people in the United States depend on to connect with friends, family, and business contacts across the world.
Imagine that all of these functions were rolled into one essential app that you and your friends, family, and co-workers depended on, and that the U.S. Or scroll through your social media feed. Imagine waking up one day, unlocking your phone, and realizing that you could no longer send or receive messages through your favorite app.
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