What This Bill Does
This bill blocks the President from allowing certain social media companies controlled by foreign countries to operate in the United States. The bill aims to stop these companies from spying on Americans, collecting their personal information, or spreading propaganda and false information. The bill specifically names TikTok and its parent company ByteDance as companies that must follow these rules.
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Who It Affects
Social media companies owned or controlled by countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. United States persons or companies that do business with these social media companies. Any person or company that tries to do business transactions with these restricted companies in the United States.
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Key Provisions
- The President must use special economic powers to block all business dealings with covered social media companies within 30 days of the law becoming effective (Sec. 2(a)).
- A social media company is covered if it is based in a country of concern, if that country owns 20 percent or more of the company, if it uses software controlled by that country, or if it could be forced to share American citizens' data with that country (Sec. 2(b)(1)).
- ByteDance and TikTok are automatically considered covered companies unless the President certifies to Congress that they no longer meet the conditions (Sec. 2(b)(2)).
- People who violate this law face the same penalties available under existing economic emergency laws (Sec. 2(d)(2)).
- The law does not apply to authorized intelligence activities of the United States (Sec. 2(c)(1)).
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What Changes
If this becomes law, TikTok and ByteDance cannot conduct business in the United States 30 days after the law takes effect unless the President certifies they no longer meet the conditions. American people and companies cannot do business with these companies or face penalties. No goods can be imported from these companies legally under this law.
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Important Definitions
- **Social Media Company**: A website, desktop app, or mobile app that lets people create accounts, share content, sell advertising, has more than 1 million monthly active users, and lets users see content from other users. This does not include apps mainly for product reviews, business reviews, travel information, or emergency alerts.
- **Country of Concern**: Foreign adversary countries as defined in another law, which specifically includes China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
- **Entity of Concern**: A government body, military force, political party, private business, or state-owned company from a country of concern that has influence from that country's government.
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Effective Date
30 days after the date the law is enacted (Sec. 2(a)). The bill text provided does not specify the actual enactment date.
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 347
To protect Americans from the threat posed by certain foreign adversaries
using current or potential future social media companies that those
foreign adversaries control to surveil Americans, gather sensitive data
about Americans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and cen-
sorship.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 9, 2023
Mr. RUBIO (for himself and Mr. KING) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs
A BILL
To protect Americans from the threat posed by certain for-
eign adversaries using current or potential future social
media companies that those foreign adversaries control
to surveil Americans, gather sensitive data about Ameri-
cans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and
censorship.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Averting the National
4
Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship
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•S 347 IS
and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese
1
Communist Party Act’’ or the ‘‘ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act’’.
2
SEC. 2. PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
3
COMPANIES CONTROLLED BY COUNTRIES OF
4
CONCERN.
5
(a) PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS.—On
6
and after the date that is 30 days after the date of the
7
enactment of this Act, the President shall exercise all the
8
powers granted to the President under the International
9
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et.
10
seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all
11
transactions in all property and interests in property of
12
a social media company described in subsection (b) if such
13
property and interests in property—
14
(1) are in the United States or come within the
15
United States; or
16
(2) to the extent necessary to prevent commer-
17
cial operation of the social media company in the
18
United States, are or come within the possession or
19
control of a United States person.
20
(b) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY DESCRIBED.—
21
(1) IN GENERAL.—A social media company de-
22
scribed in this subsection is a social media company
23
that meets one or more of the following conditions:
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•S 347 IS
(A)
The
company
is
domiciled
in,
1
headquartered in, has its principal place of
2
business in, or is organized under the laws of
3
a country of concern.
4
(B) A country of concern, entity of con-
5
cern, or some combination thereof, directly or
6
indirectly owns, controls with the ability to de-
7
cide important matters, or holds with power to
8
vote, 20 percent or more of the outstanding vot-
9
ing stock or shares of the company.
10
(C) The company employs software or al-
11
gorithms controlled or whose export is re-
12
stricted by a country of concern or entity of
13
concern.
14
(D) The company is subject to substantial
15
influence, directly or indirectly, from a country
16
of concern or entity of concern owing to
17
which—
18
(i) the company shares or could be
19
compelled to share data on United States
20
citizens with a country of concern or entity
21
of concern; or
22
(ii) the content moderation practices
23
of the company are subject to substantial
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•S 347 IS
influence from a country of concern or en-
1
tity of concern.
2
(2) DEEMED COMPANIES.—The following com-
3
panies shall be deemed to be social media companies
4
described in this subsection as of the date of the en-
5
actment of this Act unless and until the date on
6
which the President certifies to Congress that the
7
company no longer meets any of the conditions de-
8
scribed in paragraph (1):
9
(A) Bytedance, Ltd.
10
(B) TikTok.
11
(C) A subsidiary of or a successor com-
12
pany to a company listed in subparagraph (A)
13
or (B).
14
(D) A company owned or controlled di-
15
rectly or indirectly by a company listed in sub-
16
paragraph (A) or (B).
17
(c) EXCEPTIONS.—
18
(1)
INTELLIGENCE
ACTIVITIES.—Sanctions
19
under this section shall not apply to any activity
20
subject to the reporting requirements under title V
21
of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C.
22
3091 et seq.) or any authorized intelligence activities
23
of the United States.
24
(2) IMPORTATION OF GOODS.—
25
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•S 347 IS
(A) IN GENERAL.—The authorities and re-
1
quirements to impose sanctions under this sec-
2
tion shall not include the authority or require-
3
ment to impose sanctions on the importation of
4
goods.
5
(B) GOOD DEFINED.—In this paragraph,
6
the term ‘‘good’’ means any article, natural or
7
manmade substance, material, supply or manu-
8
factured product, including inspection and test
9
equipment, and excluding technical data.
10
(d) IMPLEMENTATION, PENALTIES, AND INAPPLICA-
11
BILITY OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS.—
12
(1) IMPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex-
13
ercise all authorities provided under sections 203
14
and 205 of the International Emergency Economic
15
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out
16
this section.
17
(2) PENALTIES.—A person that violates, at-
18
tempts to violate, or causes a violation of subsection
19
(a) or any regulation, license, or order issued to
20
carry out that subsection shall be subject to the pen-
21
alties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section
22
206 of the International Emergency Economic Pow-
23
ers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a
24
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•S 347 IS
person that commits an unlawful act described in
1
subsection (a) of that section.
2
(3) INAPPLICABILITY
OF
CERTAIN
PROVI-
3
SIONS.—The requirements under section 202 and
4
the limitations under section 203(b) of the Inter-
5
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50
6
U.S.C. 1701 and 1702(b)) shall not apply for pur-
7
poses of this section.
8
(e) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this section
9
or its application to any person or circumstance is held
10
invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or
11
applications of this section that can be given effect without
12
the invalid provision or application, and to this end the
13
provisions of this section are severable.
14
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
15
(1) COUNTRY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘‘coun-
16
try of concern’’—
17
(A) has the meaning given the term ‘‘for-
18
eign adversary’’ in section 8(c)(2) of the Secure
19
and Trusted Communications Networks Act of
20
2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)(2)); and
21
(B) includes the People’s Republic of
22
China (including the Special Administrative Re-
23
gions of China, including Hong Kong and
24
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•S 347 IS
Macau), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and
1
Venezuela.
2
(2) ENTITY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘‘entity of
3
concern’’ means—
4
(A) a governmental body at any level in a
5
country of concern;
6
(B) the Armed Forces of a country of con-
7
cern;
8
(C) the leading political party of a country
9
of concern;
10
(D) an individual who is—
11
(i) a national of a country of concern;
12
(ii) domiciled and living in a country
13
of concern; and
14
(iii) subject to substantial influence,
15
directly or indirectly, from an entity speci-
16
fied under any of subparagraphs (A)
17
through (C); or
18
(E) a private business or a state-owned en-
19
terprise that is—
20
(i) domiciled in a country of concern
21
or owned or controlled by a private busi-
22
ness or State-owned enterprise domiciled in
23
a country of concern; and
24
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•S 347 IS
(ii) subject to substantial influence,
1
directly or indirectly, from an entity speci-
2
fied under any of subparagraphs (A)
3
through (C).
4
(3) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY.—The term ‘‘social
5
media company’’—
6
(A) means any entity that operates, di-
7
rectly or indirectly, including through its parent
8
company, subsidiaries, or affiliates, a website,
9
desktop application, or mobile application
10
that—
11
(i) permits an individual or entity to
12
create an account or profile for the pur-
13
pose of generating, sharing, and viewing
14
user-generated content through such ac-
15
count or profile;
16
(ii) sells digital advertising space;
17
(iii) has more than 1,000,000 monthly
18
active users for a majority of months dur-
19
ing the preceding 12 months;
20
(iv) enables one or more users to gen-
21
erate content that can be viewed by other
22
users of the website, desktop application,
23
or mobile application; and
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•S 347 IS
(v) enables users to view content gen-
1
erated by other users of the website, desk-
2
top application, or mobile application; and
3
(B) does not include an entity if the entity
4
does not operate a website, desktop application,
5
or mobile application except for a website, desk-
6
top application, or mobile application the pri-
7
mary purpose of which is—
8
(i) to allow users to post product re-
9
views, business reviews, or travel informa-
10
tion and reviews; or
11
(ii) to provide emergency alert serv-
12
ices.
13
Æ
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