(Reuters) – A U.S. judge said she is willing to temporarily halt President Donald Trump’s ban on Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat following requests by its users, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
Judge Laurel Beeler said at a hearing on Thursday she is ready to grant a preliminary injunction as the president’s order is too vague, the report said https://bloom.bg/32Hg1T7.
However, a final decision was not issued by the judge on the ban, according to Bloomberg.
WeChat users had filed a motion in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeking a preliminary injunction to bar the Trump administration from prohibiting the use of WeChat in the United States by individual users, businesses and groups.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is set to release regulations by Sunday clarifying what WeChat transactions will be prohibited.
President Trump in August banned U.S. transactions with Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK>, owner of WeChat, and Bytedance’s short-video app TikTok, calling them “significant threats” to national security.
The Justice Department said on Wednesday WeChat users would not face civil or criminal penalties even if the United States bans the app.
(Reporting by Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
