A bill, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a 352–65 vote on March 13. The bill passed at the time with the support of 197 Republicans and 155 Democrats, while 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against it.
The legislation prohibits entities deemed sufficiently owned or controlled by individuals within an adversary country—namely China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea—from operating within the United States.
The bill specifically identifies “foreign adversary controlled” applications as those that are domiciled, headquartered in, or organized under the domestic laws of China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea; or a company in which a person, entity, or combination of persons or entities in the aforementioned countries have a combined ownership stake of 20 percent or more in said company; or is otherwise “subject to the direction or control of a foreign person or entity.”
The bill specifies that the popular video-sharing platform, TikTok, is one such entity that would be considered a “foreign adversary controlled application” because of its share of ownership controlled by the Chinese-headquartered ByteDance Inc. Should the bill pass, TikTok’s Chinese owners would have a window of time to sufficiently divest their ownership in the video-sharing platform, after which fines will apply to any entities that distribute, maintain, or update the application for U.S. users.
The bill proposes a fine against companies that host a “foreign adversary controlled application” of $5,000 per day, per user determined to have accessed the application as a result of a hosting website or app store.
Divestment Timeline Extension Wins Senator’s Support
Some opponents of the new bill to regulate TikTok’s ownership had expressed concerns over the divestment timeline presented in the original legislation.“It’s unreasonable to believe that in 180 days a buyer will be found and a deal will be formed, which will result in the company being banned,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said last month ahead of the original House vote.
Ms. Cantwell said she has been encouraged by a recent move by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other House leaders to expand the divestiture window for designated “foreign adversary controlled applications” to avoid the punitive measures designed to stymie their U.S. operations.
“I’m very happy that Speaker Johnson and House leaders incorporated my recommendation to extend the ByteDance divestment period from six months to a year. As I’ve said, extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done. I support this updated legislation,” she said.
The legislation has sat with the Senate for more than a month after its House passage. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has not offered a timeline for when the Senate might take up the bill.
Ms. Cantwell’s endorsement of the House bill could add momentum for its passage.
TikTok’s Defenders Have Other Concerns
While Ms. Cantwell indicated her concerns about the divestment timeline for TikTok were eased by the latest House updates, other criticisms of the legislation remain.The bill has attracted opposition from a mix of progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans.
“In fact, the United States is one of the only developed nations in the world that has no significant data or privacy protection laws on the books. The EU, for example, has something known as the GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation], which really forces an enormous amount of protection on individual users and the amount of data that companies can collect about you without your knowledge,” she said.
“So to me, the solution here is not to ban an individual company, but to actually protect Americans from this kind of egregious data harvesting that companies can do without your significant ability to say no.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez also said Congress has not received a classified briefing to substantiate the national security concerns raised around TikTok’s operations.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) likened the regulations being proposed against TikTok to opening “Pandora’s Box.”
“What’s to stop Congress or the United States government in the future from forcing the sale of another social media company claiming that it’s protecting Americans’ data from foreign adversaries?” she asked.
Ms. Taylor-Greene posed a scenario in which a social media platform such as X, formerly known as Twitter, could face regulatory pressure similar to that faced by TikTok.
