I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1081 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 17, 2023 

Mr. GALLAGHER (for himself and Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 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. 

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. PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA 

4 COMPANIES CONTROLLED BY COUNTRIES OF 

5 CONCERN. 

6 (a) PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—On and after the date that 

8 is 30 days after the date of the enactment of this 

9 Act, the President shall exercise all the powers 

10 granted to the President under the International 

11 Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 

12 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit 

13 all transactions in all property and interests in prop14 erty of a social media company described in sub15 section (b) if such property and interests in prop16 erty— 

17 (A) are in the United States or come with18 in the United States; or 

19 (B) to the extent necessary to prevent 

20 commercial operation of the social media com21 pany in the United States, are or come within 

22 the possession or control of a United States 

23 person. 

24 (2) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN PROVI25 SIONS.—The requirements of section 202 and the 


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1 limitations under section 203(b) of the International 

2 Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 

3 and 1702(b)) shall not apply for purposes of this 

4 section. 

5 (b) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY DESCRIBED.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—A social media company de7 scribed in this subsection is a social media company 

8 that meets one or more of the following conditions: 

9 (A) The company is domiciled in, has its 

10 principal place of business in, has its head11 quarters in, or is organized under the laws of 

12 a country of concern. 

13 (B) A country of concern, entity of con14 cern, or some combination thereof, directly or 

15 indirectly owns, controls with the ability to de16 cide important matters, or holds with power to 

17 vote, 20 percent or more of the outstanding vot18 ing stock or shares of the company. 

19 (C) The company employs software or al20 gorithms controlled or whose export is re21 stricted by a country of concern or entity of 

22 concern. 

23 (D) The company is subject to substantial 

24 influence, directly or indirectly, from a country 


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1 of concern or entity of concern owing to 

2 which— 

3 (i) the company shares or could be 

4 compelled to share data on United States 

5 citizens with a country of concern or entity 

6 of concern; or 

7 (ii) the content moderation practices 

8 of the company are subject to substantial 

9 influence from a country of concern or en10 tity of concern. 

11 (2) DEEMED COMPANIES.—The following com12 panies shall be deemed to be social media companies 

13 described in this subsection as of the date of the en14 actment of this Act unless and until the date on 

15 which the President certifies to Congress that the 

16 company no longer meets any of the conditions de17 scribed in paragraph (1): 

18 (A) Bytedance, Ltd. 

19 (B) TikTok. 

20 (C) A subsidiary of or a successor com21 pany to a company listed in subparagraph (A), 

22 (B), or (C). 

23 (D) A company owned or controlled di24 rectly or indirectly by a company listed in sub25 paragraph (A), (B), or (C). 


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1 (c) EXCEPTIONS.— 

2 (1) INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES.—Sanctions 

3 under this section shall not apply to any activity 

4 subject to the reporting requirements under title V 

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

6 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intelligence activities 

7 of the United States. 

8 (2) IMPORTATION OF GOODS.— 

9 (A) IN GENERAL.—The authorities and re10 quirements to impose sanctions authorized 

11 under this section shall not include the author12 ity or requirement to impose sanctions on the 

13 importation of goods. 

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

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

16 manmade substance, material, supply or manu17 factured product, including inspection and test 

18 equipment, and excluding technical data. 

19 (d) IMPLEMENTATION; PENALTIES.— 

20 (1) IMPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex21 ercise the authorities provided to the President 

22 under sections 203 and 205 of the International 

23 Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 

24 and 1704) to the extent necessary to carry out this 

25 section. 


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1 (2) PENALTIES.—A person that violates, at2 tempts to violate, or causes a violation of subsection 

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

4 carry out that subsection shall be subject to the pen5 alties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of the sec6 tion 206 of the International Emergency Economic 

7 Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as 

8 a person that commits an unlawful act described in 

9 subsection (a) of that section. 

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

11 or its application to any person or circumstance is held 

12 invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or 

13 applications of this section that can be given effect without 

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

15 provisions of this section are severable. 

16 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

17 (1) COUNTRY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘‘coun18 try of concern’’— 

19 (A) has the meaning given the term ‘‘for20 eign adversary’’ in section 8(c)(2) of the Secure 

21 and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 

22 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)(2)); and 

23 (B) includes the People’s Republic of 

24 China (including the Special Administrative Re25 gions of China, including Hong Kong and 


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

2 Venezuela. 

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

4 concern’’ means— 

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

6 country of concern; 

7 (B) the armed forces of a country of con8 cern; 

9 (C) the leading political party of a country 

10 of concern; 

11 (D) a natural person who is a national of 

12 a country of concern, is domiciled and living in 

13 such country, and is subject to substantial in14 fluence, directly or indirectly, from an entity de15 scribed in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C); or 

16 (E) a private business or a state-owned en17 terprise that is domiciled in a country of con18 cern, or owned or controlled by a private busi19 ness or state-owned enterprise domiciled in a 

20 country of concern, and that is subject to sub21 stantial influence, directly or indirectly, from an 

22 entity described in subparagraph (A), (B), or 

23 (C). 

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

25 media company’’— 


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1 (A) means any entity that operates, di2 rectly or indirectly, including through its parent 

3 company, subsidiaries, or affiliates, a website, 

4 desktop application, or mobile application 

5 that— 

6 (i) permits an individual or entity to 

7 create an account or profile for the pur8 pose of generating, sharing, and viewing 

9 user-generated content through such ac10 count or profile; 

11 (ii) sells digital advertising space; 

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

13 active users for a majority of months dur14 ing the preceding 12 months; 

15 (iv) enables one or more users to gen16 erate content that can be viewed by other 

17 users of the website, desktop application, 

18 or mobile application; and 

19 (v) enables users to view content gen20 erated by other users of the website, desk21 top application, or mobile application; and 

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

23 does not operate a website, desktop application, 

24 or mobile application except for a website, deskVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:31 Mar 11, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1081.IH H1081

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1 top application, or mobile application the pri2 mary purpose of which is— 

3 (i) to allow users to post product re4 views, business reviews, or travel informa5 tion and reviews; or 

6 (ii) to provide emergency alert serv7 ices. 

Æ 


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