I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7521 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 5, 2024 

Mr. GALLAGHER (for himself, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Ms. STEFANIK, Ms. 

CASTOR of Florida, Mr. LATTA, Mr. CARSON, Mr. HERN, Mr. MOULTON, 

Mr. ROY, Ms. SHERRILL, Mr. DUNN of Florida, Ms. STEVENS, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, Mrs. CAMMACK, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. 

MOOLENAAR, Ms. BROWN, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, and Mrs. HINSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 

and Commerce 

A BILL 

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. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Americans 

3 from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF FOREIGN ADVERSARY CON5 TROLLED APPLICATIONS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.— 

7 (1) PROHIBITION OF FOREIGN ADVERSARY CON8 TROLLED APPLICATIONS.—It shall be unlawful for 

9 an entity to distribute, maintain, or update (or en10 able the distribution, maintenance, or updating of) a 

11 foreign adversary controlled application by carrying 

12 out, within the land or maritime borders of the 

13 United States, any of the following: 

14 (A) Providing services to distribute, main15 tain, or update such foreign adversary con16 trolled application (including any source code of 

17 such application) by means of a marketplace 

18 (including an online mobile application store) 

19 through which users within the land or mari20 time borders of the United States may access, 

21 maintain, or update such application. 

22 (B) Providing internet hosting services to 

23 enable the distribution, maintenance, or updat24 ing of such foreign adversary controlled applica25 tion for users within the land or maritime bor26 ders of the United States. 


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

2 apply— 

3 (A) in the case of an application that satis4 fies the definition of a foreign adversary con5 trolled application pursuant to subsection 

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

7 days after the date of the enactment of this 

8 Act; and 

9 (B) in the case of an application that satis10 fies the definition of a foreign adversary con11 trolled application pursuant to subsection 

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

13 days after the date of the relevant determina14 tion of the President under such subsection. 

15 (b) DATA AND INFORMATION PORTABILITY TO AL16 TERNATIVE APPLICATIONS.—Before the date on which a 

17 prohibition under subsection (a) applies to a foreign adver18 sary controlled application, the entity that owns or con19 trols such application shall provide, upon request by a user 

20 of such application within the land or maritime borders 

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

22 to the account of such user with respect to such applica23 tion. Such data shall be provided in a machine readable 

24 format and shall include any data maintained by such ap25 plication with respect to the account of such user, includVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Mar 07, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7521.IH H7521

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1 ing content (including posts, photos, and videos) and all 

2 other account information. 

3 (c) EXEMPTIONS.— 

4 (1) EXEMPTIONS FOR QUALIFIED

5 DIVESTITURES.—Subsection (a)— 

6 (A) does not apply to a foreign adversary 

7 controlled application with respect to which a 

8 qualified divestiture is executed before the date 

9 on which a prohibition under subsection (a) 

10 would begin to apply to such application; and 

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

12 foreign adversary controlled application with re13 spect to which a qualified divestiture is exe14 cuted after the date on which a prohibition 

15 under subsection (a) applies to such application. 

16 (2) EXEMPTIONS FOR CERTAIN NECESSARY

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

18 services provided with respect to a foreign adversary 

19 controlled application that are necessary for an enti20 ty to attain compliance with such subsections. 

21 (d) ENFORCEMENT.— 

22 (1) CIVIL PENALTIES.— 

23 (A) FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED

24 APPLICATION VIOLATIONS.—An entity that vio25 lates subsection (a) shall be subject to pay a 


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1 civil penalty in an amount not to exceed the 

2 amount that results from multiplying $5,000 by 

3 the number of users within the land or mari4 time borders of the United States determined to 

5 have accessed, maintained, or updated a foreign 

6 adversary controlled application as a result of 

7 such violation. 

8 (B) DATA AND INFORMATION VIOLA9 TIONS.—An entity that violates subsection (b) 

10 shall be subject to pay a civil penalty in an 

11 amount not to exceed the amount that results 

12 from multiplying $500 by the number of users 

13 within the land or maritime borders of the 

14 United States affected by such violation. 

15 (2) ACTIONS BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.—The At16 torney General— 

17 (A) shall conduct investigations related to 

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

19 and, if such an investigation results in a deter20 mination that a violation has occurred, the At21 torney General shall pursue enforcement under 

22 paragraph (1); and 

23 (B) may bring an action in an appropriate 

24 district court of the United States for appro25 priate relief, including civil penalties under 


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1 paragraph (1) or declaratory and injunctive re2 lief. 

3 (e) SEVERABILITY.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—If any provision of this sec5 tion or the application of this section to any person 

6 or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall 

7 not affect the other provisions or applications of this 

8 section that can be given effect without the invalid 

9 provision or application. 

10 (2) SUBSEQUENT DETERMINATIONS.—If the 

11 application of any provision of this section is held in12 valid with respect to a foreign adversary controlled 

13 application that satisfies the definition of such term 

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

15 shall not affect or preclude the application of the 

16 same provision of this section to such foreign adver17 sary controlled application by means of a subsequent 

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

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

20 may be construed— 

21 (1) to authorize the Attorney General to pursue 

22 enforcement, under this section, other than enforce23 ment of subsection (a) or (b); 

24 (2) to authorize the Attorney General to pursue 

25 enforcement, under this section, against an indiVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Mar 07, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7521.IH H7521

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1 vidual user of a foreign adversary controlled applica2 tion; or 

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

4 or affect any other authority provided by or estab5 lished under another provision of Federal law. 

6 (g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

7 (1) CONTROLLED BY A FOREIGN ADVERSARY.— 

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

9 with respect to a covered company or other entity, 

10 that such company or other entity is— 

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

12 is headquartered in, has its principal place of 

13 business in, or is organized under the laws of 

14 a foreign adversary country; 

15 (B) an entity with respect to which a for16 eign person or combination of foreign persons 

17 described in subparagraph (A) directly or indi18 rectly own at least a 20 percent stake; or 

19 (C) a person subject to the direction or 

20 control of a foreign person or entity described 

21 in subparagraph (A) or (B). 

22 (2) COVERED COMPANY.— 

23 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 

24 company’’ means an entity that operates, di25 rectly or indirectly (including through a parent 


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

2 desktop application, mobile application, or aug3 mented or immersive technology application 

4 that— 

5 (i) permits a user to create an ac6 count or profile to generate, share, and 

7 view text, images, videos, real-time commu8 nications, or similar content; 

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

10 active users with respect to at least 2 of 

11 the 3 months preceding the date on which 

12 a relevant determination of the President 

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

14 (iii) enables 1 or more users to gen15 erate or distribute content that can be 

16 viewed by other users of the website, desk17 top application, mobile application, or aug18 mented or immersive technology applica19 tion; and 

20 (iv) enables 1 or more users to view 

21 content generated by other users of the 

22 website, desktop application, mobile appli23 cation, or augmented or immersive tech24 nology application. 


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1 (B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘covered com2 pany’’ does not include an entity that operates 

3 a website, desktop application, mobile applica4 tion, or augmented or immersive technology ap5 plication whose primary purpose is to allow 

6 users to post product reviews, business reviews, 

7 or travel information and reviews. 

8 (3) FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLI9 CATION.—The term ‘‘foreign adversary controlled 

10 application’’ means a website, desktop application, 

11 mobile application, or augmented or immersive tech12 nology application that is operated, directly or indi13 rectly (including through a parent company, sub14 sidiary, or affiliate), by— 

15 (A) any of— 

16 (i) ByteDance, Ltd.; 

17 (ii) TikTok; 

18 (iii) a subsidiary of or a successor to 

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

20 is controlled by a foreign adversary; or 

21 (iv) an entity owned or controlled, di22 rectly or indirectly, by an entity identified 

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

24 (B) a covered company that— 


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1 (i) is controlled by a foreign adver2 sary; and 

3 (ii) that is determined by the Presi4 dent to present a significant threat to the 

5 national security of the United States fol6 lowing the issuance of— 

7 (I) a public notice proposing such 

8 determination; and 

9 (II) a public report to Congress, 

10 submitted not less than 30 days be11 fore such determination, describing 

12 the specific national security concern 

13 involved and containing a classified 

14 annex and a description of what as15 sets would need to be divested to exe16 cute a qualified divestiture. 

17 (4) FOREIGN ADVERSARY COUNTRY.—The term 

18 ‘‘foreign adversary country’’ means a country speci19 fied in section 4872(d)(2) of title 10, United States 

20 Code. 

21 (5) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE.—The term 

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

23 which storage and computing resources are provided 

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1 line services, and which may include file hosting, do2 main name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual 

3 private server hosting. 

4 (6) QUALIFIED DIVESTITURE.—The term 

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

6 transaction that— 

7 (A) the President determines, through an 

8 interagency process, would result in the relevant 

9 covered company no longer being controlled by 

10 a foreign adversary; and 

11 (B) the President determines, through an 

12 interagency process, precludes the establish13 ment or maintenance of any operational rela14 tionship between the United States operations 

15 of the relevant foreign adversary controlled ap16 plication and any formerly affiliated entities 

17 that are controlled by a foreign adversary, in18 cluding any cooperation with respect to the op19 eration of a content recommendation algorithm 

20 or an agreement with respect to data sharing. 

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

22 means the combination of text and other characters 

23 comprising the content, both viewable and 

24 nonviewable, of a software application, including any 

25 publishing language, programming language, proVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Mar 07, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7521.IH H7521

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1 tocol, or functional content, as well as any successor 

2 languages or protocols. 

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

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

5 SEC. 3. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 

6 (a) RIGHT OF ACTION.—A petition for review chal7 lenging this Act or any action, finding, or determination 

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

9 Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

10 (b) EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION.—The United States 

11 Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shall 

12 have exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to this Act 

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

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

15 only be brought— 

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

17 later than 165 days after the date of the enactment 

18 of this Act; and 

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

20 finding, or determination under this Act, not later 

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

22 or determination. 

Æ 


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