WeChat users in the United States fear losing family links with ban

WeChat has about 19 million daily active users in the United States, according to analytics firm Apptopia. — Bloomberg

US President Donald Trump’s order to ban Chinese social media app WeChat may not have resonated with many Americans who are used to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep in touch with family. But for millions of people with family or business in China, the move has personal consequences.

Johnnie Yu, a 20-year-old student at New York University, where he’s the incoming co-president of the Chinese Student Society, chats with his parents in China every day on the messaging platform. When Yu heard about the ban, he began thinking of different ways to communicate with them but came up short. In China, most other messaging services that are popular in the United States are prohibited.