II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5245 

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, learn sensitive data 

about Americans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and censorship. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 13, 2022 

Mr. RUBIO 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, learn sensitive data about Americans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and 

censorship. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Averting the National 

5 Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship 


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1 and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese 

2 Communist Party Act’’ or the ‘‘ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act’’. 

3 SEC. 2. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO CER4 TAIN SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—On and after the date that is 30 

6 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Presi7 dent shall exercise all the powers granted to the President 

8 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 

9 (50 U.S.C. 1701 et. seq.) to the extent necessary to block 

10 and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests 

11 in property of a social media company described in sub12 section (b) if such property and interests in property— 

13 (1) are in the United States or come within the 

14 United States; or 

15 (2) to the extent necessary to prevent commer16 cial operation of the social media company in the 

17 United States, are or come within the possession or 

18 control of a United States person. 

19 (b) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY DESCRIBED.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—A social media company de21 scribed in this subsection is a social media company 

22 that meets one or more of the following conditions: 

23 (A) The company is domiciled in, 

24 headquartered in, has its principal place of 


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1 business in, or is organized under the laws of 

2 a country of concern. 

3 (B) A country of concern, entity of con4 cern, or some combination thereof, directly or 

5 indirectly owns, controls with the ability to de6 cide important matters, or holds with power to 

7 vote, ten percent or more of the outstanding 

8 voting stock or shares of the company. 

9 (C) The company employs software or al10 gorithms controlled or whose export is re11 stricted by a country of concern or entity of 

12 concern. 

13 (D) The company is subject to substantial 

14 influence, directly or indirectly, from a country 

15 of concern or entity of concern owing to 

16 which— 

17 (i) the company shares or could be 

18 compelled to share data on United States 

19 citizens with a country of concern or entity 

20 of concern; or 

21 (ii) the content moderation practices 

22 of the company are subject to substantial 

23 influence from a country of concern or en24 tity of concern. 


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1 (2) DEEMED COMPANIES.—The following com2 panies shall be deemed to be social media companies 

3 described in this subsection as of the date of the en4 actment of this Act unless and until the date on 

5 which the President certifies to Congress that the 

6 company no longer meets any of the conditions de7 scribed in paragraph (1): 

8 (A) Bytedance, Ltd. 

9 (B) TikTok. 

10 (C) A subsidiary of or a successor com11 pany to a company listed in subparagraph (A) 

12 or (B). 

13 (D) A company owned or controlled di14 rectly or indirectly by a company listed in sub15 paragraph (A) or (B). 

16 (c) EXCEPTIONS.— 

17 (1) INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES.—Sanctions 

18 under this section shall not apply to any activity 

19 subject to the reporting requirements under title V 

20 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 

21 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intelligence activities 

22 of the United States. 

23 (2) IMPORTATION OF GOODS.— 

24 (A) IN GENERAL.—The authorities and re25 quirements to impose sanctions under this secVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:48 Dec 15, 2022 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5245.IS S5245

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1 tion shall not include the authority or require2 ment to impose sanctions on the importation of 

3 goods. 

4 (B) GOOD DEFINED.—In this paragraph, 

5 the term ‘‘good’’ means any article, natural or 

6 manmade substance, material, supply or manu7 factured product, including inspection and test 

8 equipment, and excluding technical data. 

9 (d) IMPLEMENTATION, PENALTIES, AND INAPPLICA10 BILITY OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS.— 

11 (1) IMPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex12 ercise all authorities provided under sections 203 

13 and 205 of the International Emergency Economic 

14 Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out 

15 this section. 

16 (2) PENALTIES.—A person that violates, at17 tempts to violate, or causes a violation of subsection 

18 (a) or any regulation, license, or order issued to 

19 carry out that subsection shall be subject to the pen20 alties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 

21 206 of the International Emergency Economic Pow22 ers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a 

23 person that commits an unlawful act described in 

24 subsection (a) of that section. 


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1 (3) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN PROVI2 SIONS.—The requirements under section 202 and 

3 the limitations under section 203(b) of the Inter4 national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 

5 U.S.C. 1701 and 1702(b)) shall not apply for pur6 poses of this section. 

7 (e) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this section 

8 or its application to any person or circumstance is held 

9 invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or 

10 applications of this section that can be given effect without 

11 the invalid provision or application, and to this end the 

12 provisions of this section are severable. 

13 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

14 (1) COUNTRY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘‘coun15 try of concern’’— 

16 (A) has the meaning given the term ‘‘for17 eign adversary’’ in section 8(c)(2) of the Secure 

18 and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 

19 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)(2)); and 

20 (B) includes the People’s Republic of 

21 China (including the Special Administrative Re22 gions of China, including Hong Kong and 

23 Macau), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and 

24 Venezuela. 


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1 (2) ENTITY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘‘entity of 

2 concern’’ means— 

3 (A) a governmental body at any level in a 

4 country of concern; 

5 (B) the Armed Forces of a country of con6 cern; 

7 (C) the leading political party of a country 

8 of concern; 

9 (D) an individual who is a national of a 

10 country of concern and is domiciled and living 

11 in a country of concern, and who is subject to 

12 substantial influence, directly or indirectly, from 

13 a country of concern; or 

14 (E) a private business or a state-owned en15 terprise domiciled in a country of concern or 

16 owned or controlled by a private business or 

17 state-owned enterprise domiciled in a country of 

18 concern. 

19 (3) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY.—The term ‘‘social 

20 media company’’— 

21 (A) means any entity that operates, di22 rectly or indirectly, including through its parent 

23 company, subsidiaries, or affiliates, a website, 

24 desktop application, or mobile application 

25 that— 


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1 (i) permits an individual or entity to 

2 create an account or profile for the pur3 pose of generating, sharing, and viewing 

4 user-generated content through such ac5 count or profile; 

6 (ii) sells digital advertising space; 

7 (iii) has more than 1,000,000 monthly 

8 active users for a majority of months dur9 ing the preceding 12 months; 

10 (iv) enables one or more users to gen11 erate content that can be viewed by other 

12 users of the website, desktop application, 

13 or mobile application; and 

14 (v) enables users to view content gen15 erated by other users of the website, desk16 top application, or mobile application; and 

17 (B) does not include an entity if the entity 

18 does not operate a website, desktop application, 

19 or mobile application except for a website, desk20 top application, or mobile application the pri21 mary purpose of which is— 

22 (i) to allow users to post product re23 views, business reviews, or travel informa24 tion and reviews; or 


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1 (ii) to provide emergency alert serv2 ices. 

Æ 


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