ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban—US House passes bill H.R.7521 "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act"

Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

The House voted Wednesday to approve a bipartisan bill that would require ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the social media app or face a ban on all U.S. devices. The vote was 352-65.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who chairs the House Select Committee on China and is the lead GOP sponsor of the bipartisan bill, maintains that the bill does not amount to a ban of the video-sharing app.
"What we're after is, it's not a ban, it's a forced separation," Gallagher told NPR. "The TikTok user experience can continue and improve so long as ByteDance doesn't own the company."

This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President.

The vote came just over a week after the bill was introduced following one public hearing with little debate, and followed action in Congress stalling for more than a year. Last month, Biden's re-election campaign joined TikTok, raising hopes among company officials that legislation was unlikely this year.

The measure is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to respond to U.S. national security concerns about China, from connected vehicles to advanced artificial intelligence chips to cranes at U.S. ports. Advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have called the bill "censorship plain and simple," arguing that "jeopardizing access to the platform jeopardizes access to free expression."

"This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it," No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said of TikTok on social media platform X. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added later that the Biden administration also wanted to see "the Senate take swift action."

The future of TikTok, used by nearly 170 million Americans, has become a concern in Washington where lawmakers have complained their offices have been flooded with calls from TikTok users who oppose the legislation.

 
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has criticized the legislation, arguing "though the U.S. has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the U.S.'s national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok."

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who a source briefed on the matter said is visiting Washington this week, said in a video posted after the vote the legislation if signed into law "will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States... and would take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses."

 

Rep. Mike Gallagher speaks on H.R. 7521

About H.R. 7521
H.R. 7521, the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act'' protects Americans from national security risks posed certain by applications controlled by a foreign adversary of the United States. If an application is determined to be a foreign adversary-controlled application, such as TikTok's parent company ByteDance, the application must be divested so that it is no longer in the foreign adversary's control. If the application is not divested within 180 days, entities in the United States would be prohibited from distributing the application through an application marketplace or store, and from providing web hosting services. The 180 days would begin upon enactment of the legislation for ByteDance, TikTok, and other subsidiaries; for other foreign adversary-controlled applications, the 180 days begins after a Presidential determination that the application poses a significant threat to national security.


The legislation includes a requirement that foreign adversary-controlled applications provide users, upon request, information related to the user's account, including photos, videos, and posts, in a machine-readable format. This Act addresses the immediate national security risks posed by TikTok and establishes a framework for the Executive Branch to protect Americans using communications applications that are owned and operated by companies controlled by foreign adversary countries present a clear threat to the national security of the United States. This is because such applications can be used by those countries to gather vast amounts of data on Americans, conduct espionage campaigns, and push misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda on the American public.

TikTok Threatens U.S. Security
The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom a similar bill (H.R. 1153) was referred stated in a report the following:

TikTok's threat to individuals' personal data and U.S. national security are well-documented. The web browser used within the TikTok app can track every keystroke by its users. This means TikTok can collect information on what people type on their phones while visiting outside websites, which can reveal credit card numbers and passwords. While using the app, TikTok requests almost complete access to the contents of the users' phone, including the entire hard drive, contact lists, and other apps installed on the device. TikTok and ByteDance also secretly hand-pick specific videos to supercharge their distribution across its platform, raising serious concerns about content moderation and influence operations in the United States. Moreover, TikTok's owners are under investigation by the Department of Justice after employees of the company used the app to surveil American citizens, including several journalists who cover the tech industry. These examples, which represent a fraction of the publicly reported risks to using TikTok, are evidence that this app is a threat.

William J. Burns - CIA Director 

The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, stated: “I think it's a genuine concern... for the U.S. government, in the sense that, because the parent company of TikTok is a Chinese company, the Chinese government is able to insist upon extracting the private data of a lot of TikTok users in this country, and also to shape the content of what goes on to TikTok as well to suit the interests of the Chinese leadership... What I would underscore, though, is that it's genuinely troubling to see what the Chinese government could do to manipulate TikTok.''

The goal is to modernize implementation of parts of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that were written before the widespread use of the Internet, to ensure that they address national security concerns arising from the 21st century data-driven economy by creating a legally durable authority to sanction entities that use Americans' sensitive data in ways that undermine U.S. national security interests. Toward that end, the bill requires a timebound determination by the Executive Branch regarding whether TikTok and ByteDance meet the criteria for the newly enhanced sanctions authority.

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks on the House floor in support of H.R. 7521:

"Big Tech has transformed social media platforms into modern-day media companies. And unfortunately, these networks engage in invasive surveillance practices by collecting Americans’ most sensitive personal data. Foreign adversaries also see access to Americans’ data, communications networks, devices, and applications as the entry points to disrupt our daily lives and conduct espionage activities. All of this endangers our national security interests.

We have a long history of restricting our TV and radio airwaves from ownership by foreign governments and individuals, due to the national security concerns these arrangements pose. Social media companies should also face similar scrutiny. After all, while technology has evolved, the threats are very much the same."