[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 123 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3082-S3083]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 904. Mr. RUBIO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 2226, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2024 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:
SEC. 1083. PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES
CONTROLLED BY COUNTRIES OF CONCERN.
(a) Prohibited Commercial Transactions.--On and after the
date that is 30 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the President shall exercise all the powers granted to
the President under the International Emergency Economic
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et. seq.) to the extent necessary
to block and prohibit all transactions in all property and
interests in property of a social media company described in
subsection (b) if such property and interests in property--
(1) are in the United States or come within the United
States; or
(2) to the extent necessary to prevent commercial operation
of the social media company in the United States, are or come
within the possession or control of a United States person.
(b) Social Media Company Described.--
(1) In general.--A social media company described in this
subsection is a social media company that meets one or more
of the following conditions:
(A) The company is domiciled in, headquartered in, has its
principal place of business in, or is organized under the
laws of a country of concern.
(B) A country of concern, entity of concern, or some
combination thereof, directly or indirectly owns, controls
with the ability to decide important matters, or holds with
power to vote, 20 percent or more of the outstanding voting
stock or shares of the company.
(C) The company employs software or algorithms controlled
or whose export is restricted by a country of concern or
entity of concern.
(D) The company is subject to substantial influence,
directly or indirectly, from a country of concern or entity
of concern owing to which--
(i) the company shares or could be compelled to share data
on United States citizens with a country of concern or entity
of concern; or
(ii) the content moderation practices of the company are
subject to substantial influence from a country of concern or
entity of concern.
(2) Deemed companies.--The following companies shall be
deemed to be social media companies described in this
subsection as of the date of the enactment of this Act unless
and until the date on which the President certifies to
Congress that the company no longer meets any of the
conditions described in paragraph (1):
(A) Bytedance, Ltd.
(B) TikTok.
(C) A subsidiary of or a successor company to a company
listed in subparagraph (A) or (B).
(D) A company owned or controlled directly or indirectly by
a company listed in subparagraph (A) or (B).
(c) Exceptions.--
(1) Intelligence activities.--Sanctions under this section
shall not apply to any activity subject to the reporting
requirements under title V of the National Security Act of
1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intelligence
activities of the United States.
(2) Importation of goods.--
(A) In general.--The authorities and requirements to impose
sanctions under this section shall not include the authority
or requirement to impose sanctions on the importation of
goods.
(B) Good defined.--In this paragraph, the term ``good''
means any article, natural or manmade substance, material,
supply or manufactured product, including inspection and test
equipment, and excluding technical data.
(d) Implementation, Penalties, and Inapplicability of
Certain Provisions.--
(1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all
authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702
and 1704) to carry out this section.
(2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to
violate, or causes a violation of subsection (a) or any
regulation, license, or order issued to carry out that
subsection shall be subject to the penalties set forth in
subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same
extent as a person that commits an unlawful act described in
subsection (a) of that section.
(3) Inapplicability of certain provisions.--The
requirements under section 202 and the limitations under
section 203(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 and 1702(b)) shall not apply for purposes
of this section.
(e) Severability.--If any provision of this section or its
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid,
the invalidity does not affect other provisions or
applications of this section that can be given effect without
the invalid provision or application, and to this end the
provisions of this section are severable.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Country of concern.--The term ``country of concern''--
(A) has the meaning given the term ``foreign adversary'' in
section 8(c)(2) of the Secure and Trusted Communications
Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)(2)); and
(B) includes the People's Republic of China (including the
Special Administrative Regions of China, including Hong Kong
and Macau), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
(2) Entity of concern.--The term ``entity of concern''
means--
(A) a governmental body at any level in a country of
concern;
[[Page S3083]]
(B) the Armed Forces of a country of concern;
(C) the leading political party of a country of concern;
(D) an individual who is--
(i) a national of a country of concern;
(ii) domiciled and living in a country of concern; and
(iii) subject to substantial influence, directly or
indirectly, from an entity specified under any of
subparagraphs (A) through (C); or
(E) a private business or a state-owned enterprise that
is--
(i) domiciled in a country of concern or owned or
controlled by a private business or State-owned enterprise
domiciled in a country of concern; and
(ii) subject to substantial influence, directly or
indirectly, from an entity specified under any of
subparagraphs (A) through (C).
(3) Social media company.--The term ``social media
company''--
(A) means any entity that operates, directly or indirectly,
including through its parent company, subsidiaries, or
affiliates, a website, desktop application, or mobile
application that--
(i) permits an individual or entity to create an account or
profile for the purpose of generating, sharing, and viewing
user-generated content through such account or profile;
(ii) sells digital advertising space;
(iii) has more than 1,000,000 monthly active users for a
majority of months during the preceding 12 months;
(iv) enables one or more users to generate content that can
be viewed by other users of the website, desktop application,
or mobile application; and
(v) enables users to view content generated by other users
of the website, desktop application, or mobile application;
and
(B) does not include an entity if the entity does not
operate a website, desktop application, or mobile application
except for a website, desktop application, or mobile
application the primary purpose of which is--
(i) to allow users to post product reviews, business
reviews, or travel information and reviews; or
(ii) to provide emergency alert services.
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