Press Release
Citizen Power Initiatives for China
Washington, DC, USA
Contact : Dr. Jianli Yang
(857) 472-9039
yangjianli@initiativesforchina.org
Prominent Law Firms and Lawyers Join in Our Effort to Bring Class Action Lawsuits Against WeChat
October 12, 2020. Citizen Power Initiatives for China (CPIFC) is pleased to announce that it is consulting with two prominent American law firms to evaluate potential causes courses of action against WeChat: the Lanier Law Firm of Houston, Texas, and Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes LLP of Los Angeles, California. CPIFC is coordinating with legendary trial lawyer Mark Lanier, former federal judge and U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr, and the distinguished constitutional and civil rights litigator Paul Hoffman, as well as their highly skilled colleagues. Together, these acclaimed attorneys are helping CPIFC in both assessing WeChat’s potential liability and determining the most effective remedies to redress the company’s harmful actions.
WeChat’s terms of service are essentially a contract of adhesion for an essential service with no reasonable alternative that requires people in the U.S. to give up both their speech rights and their privacy. There is evidence that WeChat shares private user data with Communist Party-dominated state authorities. Meanwhile, WeChat’s parent company Tencent conceals its ties to the Chinese government from U.S. investors. All this violates state and federal law, and regulators can and should sue to require that Tencent comply with those laws.
Ever since CPIFC began organizing class action lawsuits against WeChat in February, 2020, the team has put forth bilingual online platforms (Website www.wechatlawsuit.com, email wechatfight@gmail.com and telephone hotline +1-240-787-6568) to collect cases and maintained contacts and consultation with hundreds of prospective plaintiffs.
Under the guidance of the prominent legal experts noted above, the CPIFC team will continue to collect cases classified into the following four types:
- Cases of Being Prosecuted Directly Based On Use of WeChat. The abuses include, but are not limited to: been harassed, been forced to relocate, loss of employment, being illegally questioned through “tea drinking,” being summoned to police stations, being disciplined, being arrested, being sentenced, being physically tortured.
- Cases of Suffering Financial Losses From the Closure of WeChat Accounts Due to So-Called “Improper Statement and/or Sensitive Information.” Financial losses from the closure of WeChat accounts, WeChat official (public) accounts, WeChat Applets, including but are not limited to: WeChat official accounts cannot receive monetary tips; WeChat Applets are not able to run business; cannot retrieve money from WeChat wallet; and other financial losses due to loss of saved contacts in WeChat.
- Cases of Suffering Mental or Material Losses Due to Violation of Privacy and/or Speech Censorship by WeChat. Losses could be caused by, but are not limited to: private contents being leaked, posts being deleted, accounts being closed, WeChat Moment being censored, WeChat group being disbanded, cannot add friends, published posts in group chat can only be seen by the sender, the share button being disabled.
- Cases of Investors Who Suffer Losses from Tencent Hiding Its Relationship with the Chinese Government.
Inspired by partnership with these prominent law firms and lawyers, CPIFC is more confident than ever that we will win this very important battle for the freedom of speech. We invite individuals and groups to collaborate with us, and welcome financial assistance for our efforts in this battle.