The US company has asked employees around the globe to remove WeChat from their personal phones

Chevron is a multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California and operates in more than 180 countries.

Recently, the company asked its global employees to remove Tencent’s WeChat from their work phones, making it one of the first US companies to follow an executive order by the Trump administration to Prohibit this application because of national security risks.

The US oil giant identified WeChat as a “non-compliant application” in an email to its employees, asking those who had it installed on their working handheld devices. delete it within a few days. If not, they will be disconnected from the company’s intranet, according to Bloomberg .

“Due to a recent government decree banning the use of WeChat, Chevron asks you to remove apps from your mobile devices,” the memo also tells each employee the operating system and phone model. “If no action is taken, before September 27, 2020, your access to the Chevron system will be deleted.”

A Chevron representative declined to comment and a Tencent spokesperson did not respond to the matter either.

WeChat has emerged as a prime target of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on China ahead of the November US election. Tensions between Washington and Beijing are showing signs of escalation. .

The WeChat app was supposed to disappear from U.S. app stores on September 20 under Mr. Trump’s executive order, but a judge in San Francisco issued a suspension order, saying it was against the right freedom of speech.

WeChat currently has 19 million regular users in the US and more than a billion worldwide. The app is the gateway to many of Tencent’s most lucrative businesses, including games and digital payment services. At the same time, it is also a marketing and communication tool widely used for American businesses to reach out to Chinese partners or consumers in the world’s most populous country.

Consult Bloomberg