[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 347 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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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 censorship.
_______________________________________________________________________
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 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 censorship.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Averting the National Threat of
Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and
Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act'' or the
``ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act''.
SEC. 2. PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES CONTROLLED BY
COUNTRIES OF CONCERN.
(a) Prohibited Commercial Transactions.--On and after the date that
is 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President
shall exercise all the powers granted to the President under the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et. seq.)
to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in all
property and interests in property of a social media company described
in subsection (b) if such property and interests in property--
(1) are in the United States or come within the United
States; or
(2) to the extent necessary to prevent commercial operation
of the social media company in the United States, are or come
within the possession or control of a United States person.
(b) Social Media Company Described.--
(1) In general.--A social media company described in this
subsection is a social media company that meets one or more of
the following conditions:
(A) The company is domiciled in, headquartered in,
has its principal place of business in, or is organized
under the laws of a country of concern.
(B) A country of concern, entity of concern, or
some combination thereof, directly or indirectly owns,
controls with the ability to decide important matters,
or holds with power to vote, 20 percent or more of the
outstanding voting stock or shares of the company.
(C) The company employs software or algorithms
controlled or whose export is restricted by a country
of concern or entity of concern.
(D) The company is subject to substantial
influence, directly or indirectly, from a country of
concern or entity of concern owing to which--
(i) the company shares or could be
compelled to share data on United States
citizens with a country of concern or entity of
concern; or
(ii) the content moderation practices of
the company are subject to substantial
influence from a country of concern or entity
of concern.
(2) Deemed companies.--The following companies shall be
deemed to be social media companies described in this
subsection as of the date of the enactment of this Act unless
and until the date on which the President certifies to Congress
that the company no longer meets any of the conditions
described in paragraph (1):
(A) Bytedance, Ltd.
(B) TikTok.
(C) A subsidiary of or a successor company to a
company listed in subparagraph (A) or (B).
(D) A company owned or controlled directly or
indirectly by a company listed in subparagraph (A) or
(B).
(c) Exceptions.--
(1) Intelligence activities.--Sanctions under this section
shall not apply to any activity subject to the reporting
requirements under title V of the National Security Act of 1947
(50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intelligence
activities of the United States.
(2) Importation of goods.--
(A) In general.--The authorities and requirements
to impose sanctions under this section shall not
include the authority or requirement to impose
sanctions on the importation of goods.
(B) Good defined.--In this paragraph, the term
``good'' means any article, natural or manmade
substance, material, supply or manufactured product,
including inspection and test equipment, and excluding
technical data.
(d) Implementation, Penalties, and Inapplicability of Certain
Provisions.--
(1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all
authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and
1704) to carry out this section.
(2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to
violate, or causes a violation of subsection (a) or any
regulation, license, or order issued to carry out that
subsection shall be subject to the penalties set forth in
subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same
extent as a person that commits an unlawful act described in
subsection (a) of that section.
(3) Inapplicability of certain provisions.--The
requirements under section 202 and the limitations under
section 203(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 and 1702(b)) shall not apply for purposes
of this section.
(e) Severability.--If any provision of this section or its
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this
section that can be given effect without the invalid provision or
application, and to this end the provisions of this section are
severable.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Country of concern.--The term ``country of concern''--
(A) has the meaning given the term ``foreign
adversary'' in section 8(c)(2) of the Secure and
Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C.
1607(c)(2)); and
(B) includes the People's Republic of China
(including the Special Administrative Regions of China,
including Hong Kong and Macau), Russia, Iran, North
Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
(2) Entity of concern.--The term ``entity of concern''
means--
(A) a governmental body at any level in a country
of concern;
(B) the Armed Forces of a country of concern;
(C) the leading political party of a country of
concern;
(D) an individual who is--
(i) a national of a country of concern;
(ii) domiciled and living in a country of
concern; and
(iii) subject to substantial influence,
directly or indirectly, from an entity
specified under any of subparagraphs (A)
through (C); or
(E) a private business or a state-owned enterprise
that is--
(i) domiciled in a country of concern or
owned or controlled by a private business or
State-owned enterprise domiciled in a country
of concern; and
(ii) subject to substantial influence,
directly or indirectly, from an entity
specified under any of subparagraphs (A)
through (C).
(3) Social media company.--The term ``social media
company''--
(A) means any entity that operates, directly or
indirectly, including through its parent company,
subsidiaries, or affiliates, a website, desktop
application, or mobile application that--
(i) permits an individual or entity to
create an account or profile for the purpose of
generating, sharing, and viewing user-generated
content through such account or profile;
(ii) sells digital advertising space;
(iii) has more than 1,000,000 monthly
active users for a majority of months during
the preceding 12 months;
(iv) enables one or more users to generate
content that can be viewed by other users of
the website, desktop application, or mobile
application; and
(v) enables users to view content generated
by other users of the website, desktop
application, or mobile application; and
(B) does not include an entity if the entity does
not operate a website, desktop application, or mobile
application except for a website, desktop application,
or mobile application the primary purpose of which is--
(i) to allow users to post product reviews,
business reviews, or travel information and
reviews; or
(ii) to provide emergency alert services.
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