I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 57
To regulate or prohibit transactions using mobile applications or software
programs that engage in the theft of user data on behalf of a communist
country, foreign adversary, or state sponsor of terrorism, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Mr. B
ERGMANintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judi-
ciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
A BILL
To regulate or prohibit transactions using mobile applications
or software programs that engage in the theft of user
data on behalf of a communist country, foreign adver-
sary, or state sponsor of terrorism, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Protecting Personal 4
Data from Foreign Adversaries Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AUTHORITIES TO REGULATE OR PROHIBIT TRANS-1
ACTIONS USING MOBILE APPLICATIONS OR 2
SOFTWARE PROGRAMS THAT ENGAGE IN THE 3
THEFT OF USER DATA ON BEHALF OF A COM-4
MUNIST COUNTRY, FOREIGN ADVERSARY, OR 5
STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM. 6
Section 203 of the International Emergency Eco-7
nomic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702) is amended— 8
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub-9
section (d); and 10
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-11
lowing new subsection: 12
‘‘(c)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), the authority 13
granted to the President by this section includes the au-14
thority to regulate or prohibit transactions using mobile 15
applications or software programs that— 16
‘‘(A) engage in the theft of or transmits a 17
user’s data in an unauthorized manner; and 18
‘‘(B) provide to a covered country, or covered 19
foreign political party, access to such data. 20
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘covered country’ 21
means any of the following: 22
‘‘(A) A Communist country. 23
‘‘(B) A foreign adversary. 24
‘‘(C) A state sponsor of terrorism. 25
‘‘(3) In this subsection: 26
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‘‘(A) The term ‘communist country’ has the 1
meaning given such term in section 620(f)(1) of the 2
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 3
2370(f)(1)). 4
‘‘(B) The term ‘foreign adversary’ has the 5
meaning given such term in Executive Order 13920, 6
issued on May 1, 2020, entitled ‘Securing the 7
United States BulkPower System’, and including the 8
list of foreign adversaries identified by the Depart-9
ment of Energy’s Office of Electricity pursuant to 10
such Executive Order on July 7, 2020, as in effect 11
on January 19, 2021. 12
‘‘(C) The term ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ 13
means a country the government of which the Sec-14
retary of State determines has repeatedly provided 15
support for international terrorism pursuant to— 16
‘‘(i) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export 17
Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 18
4813(c)(1)(A)); 19
‘‘(ii) section 620A of the Foreign Assist-20
ance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 21
‘‘(iii) section 40 of the Arms Export Con-22
trol Act (22 U.S.C. 2780); or 23
‘‘(iv) any other provision of law. 24
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‘‘(4) In this subsection, the term ‘covered for-1
eign political party’ means the Chinese Communist 2
Party (CCP).’’. 3
SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO MO-4
BILE APPLICATIONS OR SOFTWARE PRO-5
GRAMS THAT ENGAGE IN THE THEFT OF 6
USER DATA. 7
(a) I
MPOSITION OF SANCTIONS.—Notwithstanding 8
any other provision of law, the President is authorized to 9
impose the sanctions described in subsection (b) with re-10
spect to any foreign person that the President determines 11
has developed, maintains, provides, owns, or controls a 12
mobile application or software program that— 13
(1) engages in the theft of or transmits a user’s 14
data in an unauthorized manner to servers located 15
in China; and 16
(2) provides to the Government of the People’s 17
Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Communist 18
Party (CCP), or any person owned by or controlled 19
by the PRC or CCP access to such data. 20
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The sanctions described in 22
this subsection with respect to a foreign person de-23
termined by the President to be subject to sub-24
section (a) are the following: 25
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(A) ASSET BLOCKING .—The President 1
shall exercise all powers granted to the Presi-2
dent by the International Emergency Economic 3
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the ex-4
tent necessary to block and prohibit all trans-5
actions in property and interests in property of 6
the foreign person if such property and inter-7
ests in property are in the United States, come 8
within the United States, or are or come within 9
the possession or control of a United States 10
person. 11
(B) I
NADMISSIBILITY OF CERTAIN INDI -12
VIDUALS.— 13
(i) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMIS-14
SION, OR PAROLE.—In the case of a for-15
eign person who is an individual, the for-16
eign person is— 17
(I) inadmissible to the United 18
States; 19
(II) ineligible to receive a visa or 20
other documentation to enter the 21
United States; and 22
(III) otherwise ineligible to be 23
admitted or paroled into the United 24
States or to receive any other benefit 25
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under the Immigration and Nation-1
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.). 2
(ii) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 3
(I) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of 4
a foreign person who is an individual, 5
the visa or other documentation 6
issued to the person shall be revoked, 7
regardless of when such visa or other 8
documentation is or was issued. 9
(II) E
FFECT OF REVOCATION .— 10
A revocation under subclause (I) 11
shall— 12
(aa) take effect immediately; 13
and 14
(bb) automatically cancel 15
any other valid visa or entry doc-16
umentation that is in the per-17
son’s possession. 18
(2) P
ENALTIES.—The penalties provided for in 19
subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the Inter-20
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 21
U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person that violates, 22
attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a 23
violation of regulations to implement this section to 24
the same extent that such penalties apply to a per-25
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son that commits an unlawful act described in sec-1
tion 206(a) of such Act. 2
(3) E
XCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH UNITED NA -3
TIONS HEADQUARTERS AGREEMENT .—Sanctions 4
under paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply to a foreign 5
person who is an individual if admitting the person 6
into the United States is necessary to permit the 7
United States to comply with the Agreement regard-8
ing the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed 9
at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into 10
force November 21, 1947, between the United Na-11
tions and the United States, or other applicable 12
international obligations. 13
(c) W
AIVER.—The President may, on a case-by-case 14
basis and for periods not to exceed 180 days, waive the 15
application of sanctions imposed with respect to a foreign 16
person under this section if the President certifies to the 17
appropriate congressional committees not later than 15 18
days before such waiver is to take effect that the waiver 19
is vital to the national security interests of the United 20
States. 21
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION AUTHORITY.—The President 22
may exercise all authorities provided to the President 23
under sections 203 and 205 of the International Emer-24
gency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) 25
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for purposes of carrying out this section. The exceptions 1
to the President’s authority described in section 203(b) 2
of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as 3
amended by section 1, shall not apply to the President’s 4
authority to exercise authorities under this section. 5
(e) S
UNSET.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—This section shall terminate 7
on January 1, 2026. 8
(2) I
NAPPLICABILITY.—Paragraph (1) shall not 9
apply with respect to sanctions imposed with respect 10
to a foreign person under this section before Janu-11
ary 1, 2026. 12
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) A
DMITTED; ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ 14
and ‘‘alien’’ have the meanings given those terms in 15
section 101(3) of the Immigration and Nationality 16
Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(3)). 17
(2) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -18
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-19
mittees’’ means— 20
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 21
Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 22
Ways and Means, and the Committee on Finan-23
cial Services of the House of Representatives; 24
and 25
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(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 1
and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 2
Urban Affairs of the Senate. 3
(3) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-4
son’’ means a person that is not a United States 5
person. 6
(4) U
NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 7
‘‘United States person’’ means— 8
(A) a United States citizen or an alien law-9
fully admitted for permanent residence to the 10
United States; or 11
(B) an entity organized under the laws of 12
the United States or of any jurisdiction of the 13
United States, including a foreign branch of 14
such an entity. 15
SEC. 4. DETERMINATION WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPOSI-16
TION OF SANCTIONS ON WECHAT AND 17
TIKTOK. 18
(a) D
ETERMINATION.—Not later than 90 days after 19
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 20
State shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-21
mittees a determination, including a detailed justification 22
therefor, regarding whether WeChat, or any component 23
thereof, or any entity owned or controlled by WeChat, or 24
TikTok, or any component thereof, or any entity owned 25
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or controlled by TikTok, satisfies the criteria for the appli-1
cation of sanctions pursuant to— 2
(1) section 2 of this Act; or 3
(2) Executive Order 13694 (50 U.S.C. 1701 4
note; relating to blocking property of certain persons 5
engaged in significant malicious cyber-enabled activi-6
ties). 7
(b) F
ORM.—The determination required by sub-8
section (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may 9
contain a classified annex. 10
(c) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEESDE-11
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres-12
sional committees’’ means— 13
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the 14
Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select 15
Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Finan-16
cial Services, and the Committee on the Judiciary of 17
the House of Representatives; and 18
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the 19
Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Com-20
mittee on Intelligence, the Committee on Banking, 21
Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the Committee on 22
the Judiciary of the Senate. 23
Æ
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