WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department has asked a federal judge to allow the US Government to bar Apple and Google from offering Chinese-owned WeChat for download in US app stores.
A US Commerce Department order set to take effect last week, potentially making WeChat unusable in the US, has been blocked by an earlier order.
The Justice Department says the court order was in error and permits the continued, unfettered use of WeChat, a mobile application which it says constitutes a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the US.
WeChat’s owner, Tencent, has proposed a new US version of the app to protect the source code, partnering with a US cloud provider for user data storage and managing it through a US-based entity.
