II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 347 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 9, 2023 

Mr. RUBIO (for himself and Mr. KING) 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, 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.—On 

7 and after the date that is 30 days after the date of the 

8 enactment of this Act, the President shall exercise all the 

9 powers granted to the President under the International 

10 Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et. 

11 seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all 

12 transactions in all property and interests in property of 

13 a social media company described in subsection (b) if such 

14 property and interests in property— 

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

16 United States; or 

17 (2) to the extent necessary to prevent commer18 cial operation of the social media company in the 

19 United States, are or come within the possession or 

20 control of a United States person. 

21 (b) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY DESCRIBED.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—A social media company de23 scribed in this subsection is a social media company 

24 that meets one or more of the following conditions: 


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1 (A) The company is domiciled in, 

2 headquartered in, has its principal place of 

3 business in, or is organized under the laws of 

4 a country of concern. 

5 (B) A country of concern, entity of con6 cern, or some combination thereof, directly or 

7 indirectly owns, controls with the ability to de8 cide important matters, or holds with power to 

9 vote, 20 percent or more of the outstanding vot10 ing stock or shares of the company. 

11 (C) The company employs software or al12 gorithms controlled or whose export is re13 stricted by a country of concern or entity of 

14 concern. 

15 (D) The company is subject to substantial 

16 influence, directly or indirectly, from a country 

17 of concern or entity of concern owing to 

18 which— 

19 (i) the company shares or could be 

20 compelled to share data on United States 

21 citizens with a country of concern or entity 

22 of concern; or 

23 (ii) the content moderation practices 

24 of the company are subject to substantial 


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1 influence from a country of concern or en2 tity of concern. 

3 (2) DEEMED COMPANIES.—The following com4 panies shall be deemed to be social media companies 

5 described in this subsection as of the date of the en6 actment of this Act unless and until the date on 

7 which the President certifies to Congress that the 

8 company no longer meets any of the conditions de9 scribed in paragraph (1): 

10 (A) Bytedance, Ltd. 

11 (B) TikTok. 

12 (C) A subsidiary of or a successor com13 pany to a company listed in subparagraph (A) 

14 or (B). 

15 (D) A company owned or controlled di16 rectly or indirectly by a company listed in sub17 paragraph (A) or (B). 

18 (c) EXCEPTIONS.— 

19 (1) INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES.—Sanctions 

20 under this section shall not apply to any activity 

21 subject to the reporting requirements under title V 

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

23 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intelligence activities 

24 of the United States. 

25 (2) IMPORTATION OF GOODS.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—The authorities and re2 quirements to impose sanctions under this sec3 tion shall not include the authority or require4 ment to impose sanctions on the importation of 

5 goods. 

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

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

8 manmade substance, material, supply or manu9 factured product, including inspection and test 

10 equipment, and excluding technical data. 

11 (d) IMPLEMENTATION, PENALTIES, AND INAPPLICA12 BILITY OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS.— 

13 (1) IMPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex14 ercise all authorities provided under sections 203 

15 and 205 of the International Emergency Economic 

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

17 this section. 

18 (2) PENALTIES.—A person that violates, at19 tempts to violate, or causes a violation of subsection 

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

21 carry out that subsection shall be subject to the pen22 alties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 

23 206 of the International Emergency Economic Pow24 ers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a 


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1 person that commits an unlawful act described in 

2 subsection (a) of that section. 

3 (3) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN PROVI4 SIONS.—The requirements under section 202 and 

5 the limitations under section 203(b) of the Inter6 national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 

7 U.S.C. 1701 and 1702(b)) shall not apply for pur8 poses of this section. 

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

10 or its application to any person or circumstance is held 

11 invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or 

12 applications of this section that can be given effect without 

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

14 provisions of this section are severable. 

15 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

16 (1) COUNTRY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘‘coun17 try of concern’’— 

18 (A) has the meaning given the term ‘‘for19 eign adversary’’ in section 8(c)(2) of the Secure 

20 and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 

21 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)(2)); and 

22 (B) includes the People’s Republic of 

23 China (including the Special Administrative Re24 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) an individual who is— 

12 (i) a national of a country of concern; 

13 (ii) domiciled and living in a country 

14 of concern; and 

15 (iii) subject to substantial influence, 

16 directly or indirectly, from an entity speci17 fied under any of subparagraphs (A) 

18 through (C); or 

19 (E) a private business or a state-owned en20 terprise that is— 

21 (i) domiciled in a country of concern 

22 or owned or controlled by a private busi23 ness or State-owned enterprise domiciled in 

24 a country of concern; and 


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1 (ii) subject to substantial influence, 

2 directly or indirectly, from an entity speci3 fied under any of subparagraphs (A) 

4 through (C). 

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

6 media company’’— 

7 (A) means any entity that operates, di8 rectly or indirectly, including through its parent 

9 company, subsidiaries, or affiliates, a website, 

10 desktop application, or mobile application 

11 that— 

12 (i) permits an individual or entity to 

13 create an account or profile for the pur14 pose of generating, sharing, and viewing 

15 user-generated content through such ac16 count or profile; 

17 (ii) sells digital advertising space; 

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

19 active users for a majority of months dur20 ing the preceding 12 months; 

21 (iv) enables one or more users to gen22 erate content that can be viewed by other 

23 users of the website, desktop application, 

24 or mobile application; and 


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1 (v) enables users to view content gen2 erated by other users of the website, desk3 top application, or mobile application; and 

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

5 does not operate a website, desktop application, 

6 or mobile application except for a website, desk7 top application, or mobile application the pri8 mary purpose of which is— 

9 (i) to allow users to post product re10 views, business reviews, or travel informa11 tion and reviews; or 

12 (ii) to provide emergency alert serv13 ices. 

Æ 


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