[hurrdurr2]

The average American has no idea how disruptive this is to the Chinese American community; as you stated they basically do not use email, and this is essentially the only way to communicate to friends and family in China. I know a lot of older Chinese Americans who were freaking out for weeks because banning this app would essentially cut them off with no clear alternatives.

As to the censorship point, from my experience using wechat in the past people rarely discuss politics on there, unless it's to make fun of the US political reality TV. Perhaps not actively discussing internal Chinese politics is considered a form of self-censorship.

[godelski]

If you willingly talk about other politics but not your own, that does seem to be a bit of self-censorship. I mean in that case it does demonstrate that they aren't just avoiding politics in general (out of lack of interest). That or turning a blind eye, but that may or may not be meaningfully different.

[apta]

So you're admitting that WeChat is too big to fail. Let them be banned (the same way the CCP bans external apps) and let them get a taste of their own medicine.