The Chinese chat app WeChat is a threat to national security and should therefore be banned. That is the view of US President Donald Trump.
He has asked a judge in San Francisco to allow a ban on the app of the Chinese tech giant Tencent.
The US Department of Commerce previously announced that Apple and Google app stores would be banned from offering WeChat from Sunday. The court then ruled that the prohibition may restrict freedom of expression too much.
Many Chinese-speaking Americans rely on the chat app to communicate with friends in the US and China. Because China has restricted many Western apps and social media, WeChat is the only option for many people to send messages to friends and acquaintances in the Asian country.
WeChat has about 19 million active users in the US. More than 1 billion people worldwide use the app.
In the run-up to the US presidential elections, Trump is increasingly more authoritarian towards China. The president also called for a ban on the video app TikTok from the Chinese tech company ByteDance.
According to the US government, Chinese apps collect too much data about users, which is shared with the Chinese government.