Washington, D.C. - Today, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bipartisan legislation will prohibit an entity from providing services to distribute, maintain, or update a foreign adversary-controlled application on an online app store, through which users in the U.S. can access, update, or provide internet hosting services for the foreign adversary-controlled application. However, the bill provides an exception for divestitures, separating the application and its assets from a company controlled by a foreign adversary.

“TikTok has been a vessel used by the Chinese Communist Party to collect data and spy on millions of Americans. China is not our friend and doesn’t have the interest of any American in mind or action,” said Rep. Weber. “This bill doesn’t shut down TikTok, but it would force TikTok’s parent company, the China-controlled ByteDance, to divest from TikTok, and, as a result, completely cut off the flow of data between Americans’ phones and Beijing. Most Americans have absolutely no idea how much information China collects about them – bank accounts, tax forms, social security numbers, travel details and anything else they can use to surveil Americans’ pattern of life.  It is imperative that we stop this pathway of access into American homes and lives, and this legislation allows TikTok to operate, minus that influence from China.”

Background:

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would prohibit the distribution and maintenance of applications controlled by foreign adversaries that pose a clear threat to national security. The bill requires the owner of the application to cease operation or divest itself of its U.S.-based operations. In the case of TikTok, the application is operated by ByteDance, a company closely linked to the Communist Chinese Party (CCP).

The bill would also create a process for the President to designate other social media applications that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary. If so designated, the applications would face a similar prohibition on app stores and web hosting services in the U.S. unless they sever ties to the threatening entities by divestment