Beeler said that the lawsuit filed by the user raises serious questions about the validity of the request, especially in the context of the First Amendment to the Constitution. It guarantees freedom of speech.
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The interim measure also blocks the regulation, according to which the further operation of the application in the USA should be significantly limited, which could worsen the usability of this service for current users in the country.
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The Ministry of Trade decided otherwise
The Department of Commerce issued a decree on Friday that, for national security reasons, the app must be withdrawn from U.S. stores. The Department of Justice has asked Beeler not to block the ordinance, as it would frustrate the president’s efforts to find the best way to address national security threats.
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Beeler said that while the general evidence of a national security threat to China and to technology, including mobile, is considerable, the specific evidence regarding WeChat is small.
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The WeChat user alliance, which challenged the regulation, praised the decision as an important victory for millions of application users in the United States. Her lawyer, Michael Bien, pointed out that the United States had never closed a large communications platform, even during the war. According to him, the regulation trampled on the guarantees given by the First Amendment to the Constitution, such as freedom of expression and religion.
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Donald Trump
Photo: Chris Carlson, CTK / AP
The dispute also concerns TikTok
WeChat is an all-in-one mobile application, combining services similar to Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Venmo. According to the analytical company Apptopia, it had an average of 19 million active users a day in the USA at the beginning of August. It is especially popular with Chinese students, Americans living in China, and some Americans who have personal or business relationships with China. The application is an essential part of Chinese life, with more than one billion users worldwide.
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On Friday, the ministry also decided to download the TikTok application from US stores. However, the regulation was postponed for a week due to a draft agreement between the Chinese company ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, and the American companies Oracle and Walmart on application operations in the USA.
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How TikTok works
TikTok is most popular, especially among teenagers, who, according to some statistics, use it more often than Facebook. Among the users of this Chinese social network, of course, we can also find older years.
The principle of this online service is very simple, it builds on very short videos that are played sequentially. It’s like looking at Facebook posts and the screen scrolls to more and more posts.
Instead of text, TikTok is played by primary videos, short recordings lasting from three to 60 seconds. And just such a short length seems to be a recipe for success, as in the US, even the Chinese social network has already surpassed Snapchat and Instagram.
Although prim videos play short videos, many users are able to spend a few hours a day on TikTok.
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