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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-so-fast-there dept.

Judge again blocks Trump administration push to ban WeChat in the US:

A judge in California has rejected a request from the Department of Justice to reverse a previous decision allowing WeChat to remain active in US app stores. US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said new evidence the government presented did not change her opinion about the messaging app, owned by Chinese company Tencent app.[sic] WeChat will remain active in US app stores for the time being.

"The record does not support the conclusion that the government has 'narrowly tailored' the prohibited transactions to protect its national-security interests," Beeler wrote in her decision. The evidence "supports the conclusion that the restrictions 'burden substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government's legitimate interests.'" President Trump issued an executive order in August to ban WeChat, invoking the Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act.

[...] Beeler's earlier order blocked the Commerce Department ban of US transactions on WeChat. And while the government claimed it has identified "significant" threats to national security, Beeler did not appear persuaded. She said in her September 20th order that a group of WeChat users calling themselves the WeChat Alliance had demonstrated there were "serious questions" about whether the ban would potentially violate their First Amendment rights.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Revek on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:12PM (20 children)

    by Revek (5022) on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:12PM (#1068633)

    Everyone can see it. No reason to worry about his ridiculous attempts at being a strongman.

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    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Captival on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:37PM (19 children)

      by Captival (6866) on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:37PM (#1068639)

      In other words, who cares if corrupt Chinese are buying off politicians and spying on America, they like our Democrat candidate and paid him off so it's fine. Communism for all!

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Revek on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:40PM

        by Revek (5022) on Sunday October 25 2020, @08:40PM (#1068640)

        Why worry about that since corrupt americans will gather the same information and sell it to the chinese.

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        This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @09:58PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @09:58PM (#1068674)

        Does he have a Chinese Bank account or Russian Bank account?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @06:34AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @06:34AM (#1068810)

          Yes?

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @10:18PM (14 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @10:18PM (#1068680)

        Quite funny "groupthink" these so called Republicans have these days. Actually, quite pathetic.

        1. China is not a communist country. Calling it communist is no different than calling North Korea a democratic republic.
        2. Seems your boy Trump is the one that is being bought by China
            * Trump trademarks
            * Bank accounts
            * Taxes paid - seems he's more afraid of the Chinaman tax agency than IRS...

        But when Trump says something then it must be reality and not projection, right? Like he's such a playboy, he had to pay for sex. He's such devoted christian, he married with 3 wives and cheated on all of them. But I'm not going to start repeating myself here. You guys are such an embarrassment.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @11:02PM (5 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @11:02PM (#1068695)

          Hmmm, what's that old saying about stones and glass houses...

          • (Score: 2) by Tork on Monday October 26 2020, @12:09AM (3 children)

            by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 26 2020, @12:09AM (#1068707)

            Lol @ at you asking that now.

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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:11AM (2 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:11AM (#1068776)

              Mistaken reply

              • (Score: 2) by Tork on Monday October 26 2020, @04:32AM (1 child)

                by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 26 2020, @04:32AM (#1068786)
                Projection.
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                🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:48PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:48PM (#1068960)

                  Projectiles

          • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday October 26 2020, @04:04PM

            by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday October 26 2020, @04:04PM (#1068932) Journal

            Hmmm, what's that old saying about stones and glass houses...

            Let he who is without a secret Chinese bank account throw the first stone?

        • (Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @11:14PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @11:14PM (#1068700)

          And your "binary" think is even more pathetic.

          You're right its not a Communist country, it is a totalitarian country though - so instead of acknowledging the expansion activities that China have been engaging in let's argue on semantics and focus on one corner of the dirt stain. To be clear, the US and other western nations have been meddling in sovereign nations for decade as well, and we should all call everything out.

          Ditto, with Trump & the republicans, they aren't the only ones who are corrupt. So are the Democrats.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Monday October 26 2020, @12:11AM (2 children)

            by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 26 2020, @12:11AM (#1068710)
            Are they equally corrupt?
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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @03:45AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @03:45AM (#1068766)

              No one is. Not even within the same group. Your point?

              • (Score: 2) by Tork on Monday October 26 2020, @03:50AM

                by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 26 2020, @03:50AM (#1068771)

                Then which is more corrupt?

                --
                🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @01:55AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @01:55AM (#1068736)

          China is not a communist country.

          Agreed ... In fact real communism has never been tried yet.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:32AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:32AM (#1068821)

            Agreed ... In fact real communism has never been tried yet.

            Yes it had. 1918 Soviet Russia, until it was determined to have failed. In 1921 New Economic Policy replaced it, allowing people to have profit. They never went back to the more "pure communism" model.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_communism [wikipedia.org]

            You should also learn history how collectivization of farms was a total failure. The "synergies" were just not there ;)

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:40PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:40PM (#1068954)

          China is not a communist country. Calling it communist is no different than calling North Korea a democratic republic.

          But it is different.

          The Chinese are playing the long game. The Chinese understand that you can't simply flip a switch and change everything. The current socialist market economy is considered as a necessary step in the long-term development of their socialist goals which has been underway since 1978.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:50PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @04:50PM (#1068961)

            Ha ha long game! That's what I tell myself when my wife bitches me out for not doing my chores. Yes I lost this round (again) but I'm playing the long game.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Tork on Sunday October 25 2020, @10:31PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 25 2020, @10:31PM (#1068686)

        In other words, who cares if corrupt Chinese are buying off politicians and spying on America...

        The Trump Administration didn't, all they cared about was getting back at a few Tik-Tok users for their Tulsa prank. Due to that hamfistedness, now there's a First Amendment defense, making it a good deal harder to deal with WeChat and related businesses.


        Your anger is aimed in the wrong direction.

        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday October 25 2020, @10:40PM (1 child)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Sunday October 25 2020, @10:40PM (#1068688) Homepage

    I would bet a pretty penny that the WeChat Users Alliance isn't willing to reveal its supporters, as that would be very detrimental to their position.

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    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:50AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:50AM (#1068826)

      WeChat Users Alliance isn't willing to reveal its supporters

      So you are searching for conspiracy theories here? Isn't it just obvious by now that these are people that want to talk to their parents and relatives in China? Of course you can't look in the documents but *ASSUME* something nefarious? Maybe they even ordered a fucking cheese pizza? No?

      U.S. WeChat Users Alliance is comprised of WeChat Users throughout the United States.68

      FAC – ECF No. 49 at 7–10 (¶¶ 19–25).

      12.TheU.S.WeChat Users Alliance (“USWUA”), Chihuo, Inc .[REDACTED]. (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), bring this suit to challenge the Executive Order, which eviscerates an irreplaceable cultural bridge that connects Plaintiffs to family members, friends, business partners, customers, religious community members, and other individuals with common interests within the Chinese diaspora, located both in and outside of the United States.

      And *I* redacted the other names for the purposes of making you click 2 times in the original linked court documents.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @12:10AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @12:10AM (#1068709)

    Why is the nick of the IRC submitter redacted in this case? Is there something going on that we Soylentils should be worried about?

    • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Monday October 26 2020, @12:49AM (1 child)

      by unauthorized (3776) on Monday October 26 2020, @12:49AM (#1068720)

      It's from nutherguy1956, you can find out just by looking up the original submission.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @05:51AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @05:51AM (#1068801)

        nutherguy1956 is unauthorized? It becomes so confusing. So, now, who can the US Gov't censor, and it will be alright?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday October 26 2020, @08:42AM (2 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday October 26 2020, @08:42AM (#1068825) Homepage
      It's probably laziness, but is understandable. Runaway1956 uses a whole slew of easily-identifiable (thematically named) sock-puppets on IRC, everyone knows they're all him, there's no deceit or attempt to fool anyone, and the bot just copies the name of whichever one was in use at the time of submission. An editor, who does the story prep in his own free time for zero pay, you should be thanking him not criticising him, presumably wasn't prepared to make the assumption that the sockpuppet was an authentic one and replace the submitter's ephemeral nick with his presumed canonical name - which is more than fair as we've had some cross-nick-hijacking hijinks recently, and it's probably best to not assume anything.

      Not that it should matter - if your attitude to the contents of a story is based on who directed you towards the story, then you're committing a classic /ad hominem/ logical fallacy. It's worse than that, even, as just because someone points out a story with a particular opinion being expressed within it does not mean the submitter actually supports that opinion. Sometimes it's the exact opposite. Sometimes the strongest arguments against a stance are the statements made by the more extreme members of the group who take that stance. So address the points in the story. Once you've passed that hurdle, but only once you've passed it, then feel free to decorate your responses with insults. "You're wrong, and you're a grotesquely ugly freak" is *not* an /ad hominem/.
      --
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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:19PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:19PM (#1069038)

        > if your attitude to the contents of a story is based on who directed you towards the story, then you're committing a classic /ad hominem/ logical fallacy

        Well if someone consistently posts content that is skewed in politically motivated way, it's perfectly legitimate to call that sonovabitch out. A biased source is a biased source.

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 27 2020, @11:31AM

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday October 27 2020, @11:31AM (#1069245) Homepage
          True. But remember to isolate the
          - this source is biased because it overlooks X and exagerates Y, yadda yadda
          argument from the
          - you are not trustworthy as a source of unbiased information, your posting history is full of such biased sources.
          argument. They are two different arguments with two different targets.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday October 26 2020, @04:06PM (2 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday October 26 2020, @04:06PM (#1068933) Journal

    The Free Speech Warriors love it.

    Censorship is free speech!

    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday October 26 2020, @07:08PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Monday October 26 2020, @07:08PM (#1069016)

      A striking percentage of "free speech warriors" are quite clear that speech they agree with is to be protected at all costs, while speech they don't agree with is going to destroy the country and therefor must be prohibited. Oh, and lots of them also think "speech" and "money" and "bullets" are all pretty much the same thing.

      Of course, what makes the administration's claims absurd on their face is that the president publicly announced that he was going after WeChat and several other sources precisely because of the political content of the speech occurring on their platforms. Which makes it blatantly obvious that this is about the president being butthurt about people saying nasty things about him online, which is exactly the sort of thing the First Amendment was created to allow.

      The joke that should never be allowed to become reality:
      German: "I love the freedom we have here. Why, I can walk up to the Reichstag and say 'I hate Angela Merkel!' and not get arrested or anything."
      American: "But I can do the same thing - I can walk up to the White House and say 'I hate Angela Merkel!' and not get arrested or anything."
      (The original version of this was an American and Soviet both being able to say they didn't like the US president)

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:21PM (#1069039)

      Free Speech is posting the 10 Commandments in court houses.
      Free Speech is refusing to marry gay couples.
      Free Speech is talking louder (with money, advertising) that anyone else.

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