Johnson to TikTok: Cut Ties with the CCP or Lose Access to American Markets
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to take further steps to prohibit the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) access to Americans’ private data through apps like TikTok. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would remove CCP-backed ByteDance apps, including TikTok, from American app stores and web hosting services unless the application severs ties to entities like ByteDance that are subject to control of a foreign adversary.
“TikTok is Chinese Communist Party malware, promoting their propaganda and stealing Americans’ private data,” said Johnson. “This bill gives TikTok the choice—continue operating its high-user platform in America or cut ties with the Chinese Communist Party. We need to keep our country safe from the malign influence of CCP.”
Johnson has long been a critic of TikTok and ByteDance. In 2022, he introduced the Block the Tok Act to remove TikTok from federal government devices. Later that year, he voted to ban it on federal government devices.
What the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act Does:
- Incentivize Divestment of TikTok: Unless TikTok is fully divested such that it is no longer controlled by a PRC-based entity, the application will face a prohibition in the U.S. from app store availability and web hosting services until such time as a divestment occurs.
- Address the National Security Risks Posed by Other Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversary Companies: Establishes a process for the President to designate other foreign adversary controlled social media applications—as defined by statute—that shall face a prohibition on app store availability and access to web hosting services in the United States unless they sever ties to the foreign adversary-controlled company. The President may exercise this authority if an application presents a national security threat, has over one million annual active users, and is under the control of a foreign adversary entity, as defined by statute.
- Empower Users to Switch Platforms: Designated applications must provide users with a copy of their data in a format that can be imported into an alternative social media application. All users would be able to download their data and content and transition to another platform.
What the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act Does Not Do:
- Punish Individual Social Media Users: No enforcement action can be taken against individual users of an impacted app.
- Censor Speech: This legislation does not regulate speech. It is focused entirely on foreign adversary control—not the content of speech being shared. This bill only applies to specifically defined social media apps subject to the control of foreign adversaries, as defined by Congress.
- Impact Apps That Sever Ties to Foreign Adversary-Controlled Entities: An app, including TikTok, that severs ties with entities subject to the control of a foreign adversary is not impacted by any other provision of the bill.
View full bill text here.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is led by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)
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you should run this up the chain before going any further on the ‘get tough on tiktok’ thing. the winds of change are a blowin.