But there are laws, policies, judicial procedures regarding how the US gov. can access that data, specifically a warrant would be required for access to information. Moreover, information is accessed on the basis of some ostensible crime.
Aside from basic censorship of anything and everything, the CCP can use (and does) WeChat information for absolutely whatever purposes it chooses at any time.
If you say something about Hong Kong protests on WeChat - you will be flagged (and censored) and every one of your peers will be flagged as well. Your career, ability to move freely, future job prospects are in jeopardy, let alone the possibility of completely arbitrary imprisoned. There is no 'justice system' to speak of within that framework.
And of course, there are more basic issues of trade - there are zero foreign entities that would be able to operate in China on basic, civil terms. They all have to operate as organs of the state.
The CCP ensures compliance of it's authoritarian policies by having units within private organizations specifically for that purpose. Have a read [1]. It's not a 'conspiracy' it's just how they operate.
There's no way on earth we can allow those types of organizations to operate freely here.
So yes - just as TT and WeChat are banned or changed hands, there should be more action to at least have more transparency on who, what and how the US can access information from FB etc..
This is right at the core of the issue of the globalization of information and it has to be addressed, there's no way around it.
The US government collects data which is arguably not legal to collect, and parallel construction schemes have allowed law enforcement to use data it would otherwise be unable to use.
I'm not defending the CCP's actions, but I think instead of banning specific acts, the US should change policy and guidelines to ban behavior, not specific actors.
But the Commerce order does not highlight the risks, moreover, they don't bother to give specific examples of concern.
The gov. should do a much, much better job at illustrating specific scenarios, cases, impacts, outcomes in order to legitimize the action.