IIB 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7521 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 14, 2024 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To protect the national security of the United States from 

the threat posed by foreign adversary 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. 


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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 ‘‘Protecting Americans 

5 from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF FOREIGN ADVERSARY CON7 TROLLED APPLICATIONS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.— 

9 (1) PROHIBITION OF FOREIGN ADVERSARY CON10 TROLLED APPLICATIONS.—It shall be unlawful for 

11 an entity to distribute, maintain, or update (or en12 able the distribution, maintenance, or updating of) a 

13 foreign adversary controlled application by carrying 

14 out, within the land or maritime borders of the 

15 United States, any of the following: 

16 (A) Providing services to distribute, main17 tain, or update such foreign adversary con18 trolled application (including any source code of 

19 such application) by means of a marketplace 

20 (including an online mobile application store) 

21 through which users within the land or mari22 time borders of the United States may access, 

23 maintain, or update such application. 

24 (B) Providing internet hosting services to 

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1 ing of such foreign adversary controlled applica2 tion for users within the land or maritime bor3 ders of the United States. 

4 (2) APPLICABILITY.—Subsection (a) shall 

5 apply— 

6 (A) in the case of an application that satis7 fies the definition of a foreign adversary con8 trolled application pursuant to subsection 

9 (g)(3)(A), beginning on the date that is 180 

10 days after the date of the enactment of this 

11 Act; and 

12 (B) in the case of an application that satis13 fies the definition of a foreign adversary con14 trolled application pursuant to subsection 

15 (g)(3)(B), beginning on the date that is 180 

16 days after the date of the relevant determina17 tion of the President under such subsection. 

18 (b) DATA AND INFORMATION PORTABILITY TO AL19 TERNATIVE APPLICATIONS.—Before the date on which a 

20 prohibition under subsection (a) applies to a foreign adver21 sary controlled application, the entity that owns or con22 trols such application shall provide, upon request by a user 

23 of such application within the land or maritime borders 

24 of United States, to such user all the available data related 

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1 tion. Such data shall be provided in a machine readable 

2 format and shall include any data maintained by such ap3 plication with respect to the account of such user, includ4 ing content (including posts, photos, and videos) and all 

5 other account information. 

6 (c) EXEMPTIONS.— 

7 (1) EXEMPTIONS FOR QUALIFIED

8 DIVESTITURES.—Subsection (a)— 

9 (A) does not apply to a foreign adversary 

10 controlled application with respect to which a 

11 qualified divestiture is executed before the date 

12 on which a prohibition under subsection (a) 

13 would begin to apply to such application; and 

14 (B) shall cease to apply in the case of a 

15 foreign adversary controlled application with re16 spect to which a qualified divestiture is exe17 cuted after the date on which a prohibition 

18 under subsection (a) applies to such application. 

19 (2) EXEMPTIONS FOR CERTAIN NECESSARY

20 SERVICES.—Subsections (a) and (b) do not apply to 

21 services provided with respect to a foreign adversary 

22 controlled application that are necessary for an enti23 ty to attain compliance with such subsections. 

24 (d) ENFORCEMENT.— 

25 (1) CIVIL PENALTIES.— 


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1 (A) FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED

2 APPLICATION VIOLATIONS.—An entity that vio3 lates subsection (a) shall be subject to pay a 

4 civil penalty in an amount not to exceed the 

5 amount that results from multiplying $5,000 by 

6 the number of users within the land or mari7 time borders of the United States determined to 

8 have accessed, maintained, or updated a foreign 

9 adversary controlled application as a result of 

10 such violation. 

11 (B) DATA AND INFORMATION VIOLA12 TIONS.—An entity that violates subsection (b) 

13 shall be subject to pay a civil penalty in an 

14 amount not to exceed the amount that results 

15 from multiplying $500 by the number of users 

16 within the land or maritime borders of the 

17 United States affected by such violation. 

18 (2) ACTIONS BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.—The At19 torney General— 

20 (A) shall conduct investigations related to 

21 potential violations of subsection (a) or (b), 

22 and, if such an investigation results in a deter23 mination that a violation has occurred, the At24 torney General shall pursue enforcement under 

25 paragraph (1); and 


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1 (B) may bring an action in an appropriate 

2 district court of the United States for appro3 priate relief, including civil penalties under 

4 paragraph (1) or declaratory and injunctive re5 lief. 

6 (e) SEVERABILITY.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—If any provision of this sec8 tion or the application of this section to any person 

9 or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall 

10 not affect the other provisions or applications of this 

11 section that can be given effect without the invalid 

12 provision or application. 

13 (2) SUBSEQUENT DETERMINATIONS.—If the 

14 application of any provision of this section is held in15 valid with respect to a foreign adversary controlled 

16 application that satisfies the definition of such term 

17 pursuant to subsection (g)(3)(A), such invalidity 

18 shall not affect or preclude the application of the 

19 same provision of this section to such foreign adver20 sary controlled application by means of a subsequent 

21 determination pursuant to subsection (g)(3)(B). 

22 (f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 

23 may be construed— 


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1 (1) to authorize the Attorney General to pursue 

2 enforcement, under this section, other than enforce3 ment of subsection (a) or (b); 

4 (2) to authorize the Attorney General to pursue 

5 enforcement, under this section, against an indi6 vidual user of a foreign adversary controlled applica7 tion; or 

8 (3) except as expressly provided herein, to alter 

9 or affect any other authority provided by or estab10 lished under another provision of Federal law. 

11 (g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

12 (1) CONTROLLED BY A FOREIGN ADVERSARY.— 

13 The term ‘‘controlled by a foreign adversary’’ means, 

14 with respect to a covered company or other entity, 

15 that such company or other entity is— 

16 (A) a foreign person that is domiciled in, 

17 is headquartered in, has its principal place of 

18 business in, or is organized under the laws of 

19 a foreign adversary country; 

20 (B) an entity with respect to which a for21 eign person or combination of foreign persons 

22 described in subparagraph (A) directly or indi23 rectly own at least a 20 percent stake; or 


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1 (C) a person subject to the direction or 

2 control of a foreign person or entity described 

3 in subparagraph (A) or (B). 

4 (2) COVERED COMPANY.— 

5 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 

6 company’’ means an entity that operates, di7 rectly or indirectly (including through a parent 

8 company, subsidiary, or affiliate), a website, 

9 desktop application, mobile application, or aug10 mented or immersive technology application 

11 that— 

12 (i) permits a user to create an ac13 count or profile to generate, share, and 

14 view text, images, videos, real-time commu15 nications, or similar content; 

16 (ii) has more than 1,000,000 monthly 

17 active users with respect to at least 2 of 

18 the 3 months preceding the date on which 

19 a relevant determination of the President 

20 is made pursuant to paragraph (3)(B); 

21 (iii) enables 1 or more users to gen22 erate or distribute content that can be 

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1 mented or immersive technology applica2 tion; and 

3 (iv) enables 1 or more users to view 

4 content generated by other users of the 

5 website, desktop application, mobile appli6 cation, or augmented or immersive tech7 nology application. 

8 (B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘covered com9 pany’’ does not include an entity that operates 

10 a website, desktop application, mobile applica11 tion, or augmented or immersive technology ap12 plication whose primary purpose is to allow 

13 users to post product reviews, business reviews, 

14 or travel information and reviews. 

15 (3) FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLI16 CATION.—The term ‘‘foreign adversary controlled 

17 application’’ means a website, desktop application, 

18 mobile application, or augmented or immersive tech19 nology application that is operated, directly or indi20 rectly (including through a parent company, sub21 sidiary, or affiliate), by— 

22 (A) any of— 

23 (i) ByteDance, Ltd.; 

24 (ii) TikTok; 


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1 (iii) a subsidiary of or a successor to 

2 an entity identified in clause (i) or (ii) that 

3 is controlled by a foreign adversary; or 

4 (iv) an entity owned or controlled, di5 rectly or indirectly, by an entity identified 

6 in clause (i), (ii), or (iii); or 

7 (B) a covered company that— 

8 (i) is controlled by a foreign adver9 sary; and 

10 (ii) that is determined by the Presi11 dent to present a significant threat to the 

12 national security of the United States fol13 lowing the issuance of— 

14 (I) a public notice proposing such 

15 determination; and 

16 (II) a public report to Congress, 

17 submitted not less than 30 days be18 fore such determination, describing 

19 the specific national security concern 

20 involved and containing a classified 

21 annex and a description of what as22 sets would need to be divested to exe23 cute a qualified divestiture. 

24 (4) FOREIGN ADVERSARY COUNTRY.—The term 

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1 fied in section 4872(d)(2) of title 10, United States 

2 Code. 

3 (5) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE.—The term 

4 ‘‘internet hosting service’’ means a service through 

5 which storage and computing resources are provided 

6 to an individual or organization for the accommoda7 tion and maintenance of 1 or more websites or on8 line services, and which may include file hosting, do9 main name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual 

10 private server hosting. 

11 (6) QUALIFIED DIVESTITURE.—The term 

12 ‘‘qualified divestiture’’ means a divestiture or similar 

13 transaction that— 

14 (A) the President determines, through an 

15 interagency process, would result in the relevant 

16 foreign adversary controlled application no 

17 longer being controlled by a foreign adversary; 

18 and 

19 (B) the President determines, through an 

20 interagency process, precludes the establish21 ment or maintenance of any operational rela22 tionship between the United States operations 

23 of the relevant foreign adversary controlled ap24 plication and any formerly affiliated entities 

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1 cluding any cooperation with respect to the op2 eration of a content recommendation algorithm 

3 or an agreement with respect to data sharing. 

4 (7) SOURCE CODE.—The term ‘‘source code’’ 

5 means the combination of text and other characters 

6 comprising the content, both viewable and 

7 nonviewable, of a software application, including any 

8 publishing language, programming language, pro9 tocol, or functional content, as well as any successor 

10 languages or protocols. 

11 (8) UNITED STATES.—The term ‘‘United 

12 States’’ includes the territories of the United States. 

13 SEC. 3. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 

14 (a) RIGHT OF ACTION.—A petition for review chal15 lenging this Act or any action, finding, or determination 

16 under this Act may be filed only in the United States 

17 Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

18 (b) EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION.—The United States 

19 Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shall 

20 have exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to this Act 

21 or any action, finding, or determination under this Act. 

22 (c) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—A challenge may 

23 only be brought— 


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1 (1) in the case of a challenge to this Act, not 

2 later than 165 days after the date of the enactment 

3 of this Act; and 

4 (2) in the case of a challenge to any action, 

5 finding, or determination under this Act, not later 

6 than 90 days after the date of such action, finding, 

7 or determination. 

Passed the House of Representatives March 13, 

2024. 

Attest: KEVIN F. MCCUMBER, 

Clerk. 


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