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Editor’s Note: International Voice is a project that The Daily Orange’s Opinion section founded in partnership with WeMedia Lab, a student media organization at Syracuse University serving international students on campus.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced Sept. 18 that it would pursue banning both Tik Tok and WeChat in the United States, claiming that the Chinese government was using the social media apps to spy on Americans. While Tik Tok has come to a provisional agreement with Oracle to sell its U.S. operations, WeChat hasn’t taken big steps fighting against the restrictions.

A federal judge blocked the initial ban on WeChat, which was supposed to start Sep. 20. Judge Laurel Beeler said restrictions on the app could violate users’ First Amendment rights. Plus, Beeler also pointed out the importance of WeChat to the Chinese community.

She is right. As a Chinese student, WeChat is my major communication medium. When waking up in the morning and grabbing my phone, WeChat is the first app I will check.

The function of Wechat is the same as many social media. Users can send messages, create group chats, share moments with friends and even use it for mobile payment. It’s like a combination of Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram. While many people switch back and forth between those apps, most Chinese students use just WeChat alone.

WeChat has many functions critical to keeping Chinese students connected. It contains photo, voice call, location and video call capabilities. Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, recently added a social function called “nudge.” During Chat, when you double-tap your friend’s profile photo, your friend will receive a message that you “nudged” them. The feature intends to convey some warmth during chat, something that’s important as it’s much harder to see friends in person due to COVID-19.

Unlike in the U.S., WeChat is the most popular app in China. Almost everyone has the app and uses it to connect. In 2019, the number of WeChat users reached 1.2 billion, and the Chinese population is 1.4 billion. Globally, the active users of WeChat ranked 5th of all apps, with almost all of the users being Chinese.

Teenagers have an average of 1,000 friends on their address book on WeChat, and adults have 1,500, according to research Tencent published in 2019. The numbers are increasing through the years, with more and more children keeping in touch with each other through WeChat.

I didn’t have a WeChat account until high school, so I barely have connections with my primary school classmates. But now my younger sister even chats weekly with her elementary friends through WeChat.

Due to the WeChat’s popularity, a majority of Chinese apps use WeChat as one of its login options, similar to logging in with Google or Facebook in the U.S.. In China, we use WeChat. The ban of WeChat will not only affect this single app, but also cause obstacles using other programs for Chinese students.

It’s not hard to imagine how much influence the restrictions will cause. Almost everyone in the Chinese community will have to change their social media tools, meaning that they’ll need to abandon the address book and establish connections with friends through new apps. However, the biggest problem is local Chinese people not being able to access foreign apps such as Instagram and Facebook while in China, creating a digital wall between the students in the U.S. and their families at home.

The disconnection of social networks between China and the U.S. makes connections of people in two countries harder and harder. No matter what will happen in the Oct. 15 hearing with the U.S. Department of Justice, as international students, the situation can only get worse.

Ava Hu | Editor

WeMedia Lab

Published on October 6, 2020 at 9:38 pm

Contact Ava: xhu144@syr.edu