118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7521
AN ACT
To protect the national security of the United States from
the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applica-
tions, such as TikTok and any successor application or
service and any other application or service developed
or provided by ByteDance Ltd. or an entity under the
control of ByteDance Ltd. 2
•HR 7521 EH
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 Americans 4
from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF FOREIGN ADVERSARY CON-6
TROLLED APPLICATIONS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 8
(1) P
ROHIBITION OF FOREIGN ADVERSARY CON -9
TROLLED APPLICATIONS .—It shall be unlawful for 10
an entity to distribute, maintain, or update (or en-11
able the distribution, maintenance, or updating of) a 12
foreign adversary controlled application by carrying 13
out, within the land or maritime borders of the 14
United States, any of the following: 15
(A) Providing services to distribute, main-16
tain, or update such foreign adversary con-17
trolled application (including any source code of 18
such application) by means of a marketplace 19
(including an online mobile application store) 20
through which users within the land or mari-21
time borders of the United States may access, 22
maintain, or update such application. 23
(B) Providing internet hosting services to 24
enable the distribution, maintenance, or updat-25 3
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ing of such foreign adversary controlled applica-1
tion for users within the land or maritime bor-2
ders of the United States. 3
(2) A
PPLICABILITY.—Subsection (a) shall 4
apply— 5
(A) in the case of an application that satis-6
fies the definition of a foreign adversary con-7
trolled application pursuant to subsection 8
(g)(3)(A), beginning on the date that is 180 9
days after the date of the enactment of this 10
Act; and 11
(B) in the case of an application that satis-12
fies the definition of a foreign adversary con-13
trolled application pursuant to subsection 14
(g)(3)(B), beginning on the date that is 180 15
days after the date of the relevant determina-16
tion of the President under such subsection. 17
(b) D
ATA ANDINFORMATIONPORTABILITY TOAL-18
TERNATIVEAPPLICATIONS.—Before the date on which a 19
prohibition under subsection (a) applies to a foreign adver-20
sary controlled application, the entity that owns or con-21
trols such application shall provide, upon request by a user 22
of such application within the land or maritime borders 23
of United States, to such user all the available data related 24
to the account of such user with respect to such applica-25 4
•HR 7521 EH
tion. Such data shall be provided in a machine readable 1
format and shall include any data maintained by such ap-2
plication with respect to the account of such user, includ-3
ing content (including posts, photos, and videos) and all 4
other account information. 5
(c) E
XEMPTIONS.— 6
(1) E
XEMPTIONS FOR QUALIFIED 7
DIVESTITURES.—Subsection (a)— 8
(A) does not apply to a foreign adversary 9
controlled application with respect to which a 10
qualified divestiture is executed before the date 11
on which a prohibition under subsection (a) 12
would begin to apply to such application; and 13
(B) shall cease to apply in the case of a 14
foreign adversary controlled application with re-15
spect to which a qualified divestiture is exe-16
cuted after the date on which a prohibition 17
under subsection (a) applies to such application. 18
(2) E
XEMPTIONS FOR CERTAIN NECESSARY 19
SERVICES.—Subsections (a) and (b) do not apply to 20
services provided with respect to a foreign adversary 21
controlled application that are necessary for an enti-22
ty to attain compliance with such subsections. 23
(d) E
NFORCEMENT.— 24
(1) C
IVIL PENALTIES.— 25 5
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(A) FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED 1
APPLICATION VIOLATIONS.—An entity that vio-2
lates subsection (a) shall be subject to pay a 3
civil penalty in an amount not to exceed the 4
amount that results from multiplying $5,000 by 5
the number of users within the land or mari-6
time borders of the United States determined to 7
have accessed, maintained, or updated a foreign 8
adversary controlled application as a result of 9
such violation. 10
(B) D
ATA AND INFORMATION VIOLA -11
TIONS.—An entity that violates subsection (b) 12
shall be subject to pay a civil penalty in an 13
amount not to exceed the amount that results 14
from multiplying $500 by the number of users 15
within the land or maritime borders of the 16
United States affected by such violation. 17
(2) A
CTIONS BY ATTORNEY GENERAL .—The At-18
torney General— 19
(A) shall conduct investigations related to 20
potential violations of subsection (a) or (b), 21
and, if such an investigation results in a deter-22
mination that a violation has occurred, the At-23
torney General shall pursue enforcement under 24
paragraph (1); and 25 6
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(B) may bring an action in an appropriate 1
district court of the United States for appro-2
priate relief, including civil penalties under 3
paragraph (1) or declaratory and injunctive re-4
lief. 5
(e) S
EVERABILITY.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If any provision of this sec-7
tion or the application of this section to any person 8
or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall 9
not affect the other provisions or applications of this 10
section that can be given effect without the invalid 11
provision or application. 12
(2) S
UBSEQUENT DETERMINATIONS .—If the 13
application of any provision of this section is held in-14
valid with respect to a foreign adversary controlled 15
application that satisfies the definition of such term 16
pursuant to subsection (g)(3)(A), such invalidity 17
shall not affect or preclude the application of the 18
same provision of this section to such foreign adver-19
sary controlled application by means of a subsequent 20
determination pursuant to subsection (g)(3)(B). 21
(f) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 22
may be construed— 23 7
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(1) to authorize the Attorney General to pursue 1
enforcement, under this section, other than enforce-2
ment of subsection (a) or (b); 3
(2) to authorize the Attorney General to pursue 4
enforcement, under this section, against an indi-5
vidual user of a foreign adversary controlled applica-6
tion; or 7
(3) except as expressly provided herein, to alter 8
or affect any other authority provided by or estab-9
lished under another provision of Federal law. 10
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
(1) C
ONTROLLED BY A FOREIGN ADVERSARY .— 12
The term ‘‘controlled by a foreign adversary’’ means, 13
with respect to a covered company or other entity, 14
that such company or other entity is— 15
(A) a foreign person that is domiciled in, 16
is headquartered in, has its principal place of 17
business in, or is organized under the laws of 18
a foreign adversary country; 19
(B) an entity with respect to which a for-20
eign person or combination of foreign persons 21
described in subparagraph (A) directly or indi-22
rectly own at least a 20 percent stake; or 23 8
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(C) a person subject to the direction or 1
control of a foreign person or entity described 2
in subparagraph (A) or (B). 3
(2) C
OVERED COMPANY.— 4
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 5
company’’ means an entity that operates, di-6
rectly or indirectly (including through a parent 7
company, subsidiary, or affiliate), a website, 8
desktop application, mobile application, or aug-9
mented or immersive technology application 10
that— 11
(i) permits a user to create an ac-12
count or profile to generate, share, and 13
view text, images, videos, real-time commu-14
nications, or similar content; 15
(ii) has more than 1,000,000 monthly 16
active users with respect to at least 2 of 17
the 3 months preceding the date on which 18
a relevant determination of the President 19
is made pursuant to paragraph (3)(B); 20
(iii) enables 1 or more users to gen-21
erate or distribute content that can be 22
viewed by other users of the website, desk-23
top application, mobile application, or aug-24 9
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mented or immersive technology applica-1
tion; and 2
(iv) enables 1 or more users to view 3
content generated by other users of the 4
website, desktop application, mobile appli-5
cation, or augmented or immersive tech-6
nology application. 7
(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘‘covered com-8
pany’’ does not include an entity that operates 9
a website, desktop application, mobile applica-10
tion, or augmented or immersive technology ap-11
plication whose primary purpose is to allow 12
users to post product reviews, business reviews, 13
or travel information and reviews. 14
(3) F
OREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLI -15
CATION.—The term ‘‘foreign adversary controlled 16
application’’ means a website, desktop application, 17
mobile application, or augmented or immersive tech-18
nology application that is operated, directly or indi-19
rectly (including through a parent company, sub-20
sidiary, or affiliate), by— 21
(A) any of— 22
(i) ByteDance, Ltd.; 23
(ii) TikTok; 24 10
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(iii) a subsidiary of or a successor to 1
an entity identified in clause (i) or (ii) that 2
is controlled by a foreign adversary; or 3
(iv) an entity owned or controlled, di-4
rectly or indirectly, by an entity identified 5
in clause (i), (ii), or (iii); or 6
(B) a covered company that— 7
(i) is controlled by a foreign adver-8
sary; and 9
(ii) that is determined by the Presi-10
dent to present a significant threat to the 11
national security of the United States fol-12
lowing the issuance of— 13
(I) a public notice proposing such 14
determination; and 15
(II) a public report to Congress, 16
submitted not less than 30 days be-17
fore such determination, describing 18
the specific national security concern 19
involved and containing a classified 20
annex and a description of what as-21
sets would need to be divested to exe-22
cute a qualified divestiture. 23
(4) F
OREIGN ADVERSARY COUNTRY .—The term 24
‘‘foreign adversary country’’ means a country speci-25 11
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fied in section 4872(d)(2) of title 10, United States 1
Code. 2
(5) I
NTERNET HOSTING SERVICE .—The term 3
‘‘internet hosting service’’ means a service through 4
which storage and computing resources are provided 5
to an individual or organization for the accommoda-6
tion and maintenance of 1 or more websites or on-7
line services, and which may include file hosting, do-8
main name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual 9
private server hosting. 10
(6) Q
UALIFIED DIVESTITURE .—The term 11
‘‘qualified divestiture’’ means a divestiture or similar 12
transaction that— 13
(A) the President determines, through an 14
interagency process, would result in the relevant 15
foreign adversary controlled application no 16
longer being controlled by a foreign adversary; 17
and 18
(B) the President determines, through an 19
interagency process, precludes the establish-20
ment or maintenance of any operational rela-21
tionship between the United States operations 22
of the relevant foreign adversary controlled ap-23
plication and any formerly affiliated entities 24
that are controlled by a foreign adversary, in-25 12
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cluding any cooperation with respect to the op-1
eration of a content recommendation algorithm 2
or an agreement with respect to data sharing. 3
(7) S
OURCE CODE.—The term ‘‘source code’’ 4
means the combination of text and other characters 5
comprising the content, both viewable and 6
nonviewable, of a software application, including any 7
publishing language, programming language, pro-8
tocol, or functional content, as well as any successor 9
languages or protocols. 10
(8) U
NITED STATES.—The term ‘‘United 11
States’’ includes the territories of the United States. 12
SEC. 3. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 13
(a) R
IGHT OFACTION.—A petition for review chal-14
lenging this Act or any action, finding, or determination 15
under this Act may be filed only in the United States 16
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 17
(b) E
XCLUSIVEJURISDICTION.—The United States 18
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shall 19
have exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to this Act 20
or any action, finding, or determination under this Act. 21
(c) S
TATUTE OFLIMITATIONS.—A challenge may 22
only be brought— 23 13
•HR 7521 EH
(1) in the case of a challenge to this Act, not 1
later than 165 days after the date of the enactment 2
of this Act; and 3
(2) in the case of a challenge to any action, 4
finding, or determination under this Act, not later 5
than 90 days after the date of such action, finding, 6
or determination. 7
Passed the House of Representatives March 13,
2024.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 7521
AN ACT
To protect the national security of the United
States from the threat posed by foreign adver-
sary controlled applications, such as TikTok and
any successor application or service and any
other application or service developed or provided
by ByteDance Ltd. or an entity under the control
of ByteDance Ltd.