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What A WeChat Ban Would Mean for Organizing in San Francisco's Chinatown

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Ah Ying holding a "renters fight rent hikes" at a march for Veritas tenants organized on WeChat in 2019. (Photo courtesy Chinese Progressive Association)

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that could ban WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app, from operating in the United States. 

But this potential ban would also have ripple effects on local politics in San Francisco, where about one in five residents are Chinese. Many use the app to talk with family and do business, but also to reach voters and organize around issues like tenants’ rights.  So without it, Chinese-speaking residents would lose a pillar of their organizing infrastructure. 

Guest: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Reporter for KQED

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