My cold take on TikTok

While I don't think you should have TikTok on your phone, I don't think the Feds should prevent you from having it.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7521, the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” by a bipartisan 352 to 65 vote.

The legislation prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application.

Under the bill, U.S. app stores and web hosting companies would be required to block access to TikTok, owned by ByteDance, Ltd., a Chinese-owned company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, deemed a national security threat. TikTok could avoid this fate if it is sold.

The bill also gives the president the power to deem any additional applications a “foreign adversary controlled application” if it is determined to be a threat to national security. U.S. law defines covered nations under this bill to be North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran.

What does it mean for an app to be “controlled by a foreign adversary?”

Here’s how the bill lays it out:

The term "controlled by a foreign adversary" means, with respect to a covered company or other entity, that such company or other entity is—

(A) a foreign person that is domiciled in, is headquartered in, has its principal place of business in, or is organized under the laws of a foreign adversary country;

(B) an entity with respect to which a foreign person or combination of foreign persons described in subparagraph (A) directly or indirectly own at least a 20 percent stake; or

(C) a person subject to the direction or control of a foreign person or entity described in subparagraph (A) or (B).

A covered company or other entity only has to meet one of these criteria.