House panel to vote on bill allowing Biden to ban TikTok | CNN Business

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A powerful House committee is set to vote Tuesday on a bill that would make it easier for the United States to ban TikTok and crack down on other economic activities linked to China, amid vocal objections from civil liberties advocates who argue that the proposal is unconstitutionally broad and threatens a wide range of online speech.

The legislation, introduced Friday and fast-tracked by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, would allow the Biden administration to impose a nationwide ban on TikTok under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

The text of the bill specifically names TikTok and its parent, ByteDance, and requires President Joe Biden to impose sanctions against the companies, including a ban, if the administration determines they may have knowingly transferred data from ‘TikTok user to “any foreigner”. working for or under the influence of the Chinese government.

Sanctions would also be required if the Biden administration finds that the companies helped the Chinese government engage in surveillance, hacking, censorship or intelligence gathering; facilitated election meddling in the United States or another democratic ally; or helped the Chinese government influence US policy-making, among other things.

The bill, known as HR 1153 or the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries Act, also weakens a 35-year-old law, known as the Berman Amendment to IEEPA, which prohibited the US government from restricting the free flow of “informational materials” such as movies, photos, news, and eventually electronic media to it from foreign countries, even those under US sanctions. Legal experts and even some TikTok creators have cited the Berman Amendment as a potential barrier to a nationwide ban on TikTok because it may violate the Berman Amendment’s protections for electronic information.

Legislation being considered this week specifies that “sensitive personal data” does not qualify for the protections of the Berman Amendment, which allows the US government to impose restrictions on the international flow of data under IEEPA.

The legislation reflects the urgency of US lawmakers amid fears that TikTok or ByteDance could be pressured by the Chinese government to hand over the personal information of their US users. US officials have said the data could benefit China by facilitating targeted disinformation campaigns or providing it with intelligence targets.

In a statement, TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter called on the Biden administration to finalize a proposed national security deal that has been in the works for years and is designed to address those concerns.

“More than 100 million Americans use and love TikTok,” Oberwetter said. “It would be unfortunate if the House Foreign Affairs Committee censored millions of Americans and did so based not on real intelligence, but on a basic misunderstanding of our corporate structure. TikTok Inc. is a company subject to American law, and we have two years and $1.5 billion in a project to go beyond existing law to secure the American version of the TikTok platform.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the legislation as “vague and overbroad” and accused lawmakers of rushing the bill to a committee vote just days after it was introduced without holding a hearing on the proposal .

By seeking to restrict access to a specific social media platform, the bill risks violating Americans’ First Amendment free speech rights, the ACLU said.

Under the bill, the US government could seek to impose similar sanctions and restrictions on any US citizen who “may transfer sensitive personal data” to “any foreign person” who is “subject to the jurisdiction” or “of a otherwise subject to China’s influence.”

But terms like “may be facilitating” or “subject to China’s influence” could be interpreted broadly to cover a wide range of innocuous economic activity and could expose Americans to enormous legal risk, he wrote ‘ACLU in a letter to McCaul and the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks.

“It would be impossible for the average person to know what the term ‘subject to China’s influence’ means, and the term is not defined in the legislation,” the letter said. “Would an entity be under the influence of China if the CEO’s sister moved there or married a Chinese person? Would an entity be under the influence of China if the CEO regularly travels there for leisure?”

The ACLU also pointed to the bill’s proposed changes to the Berman Amendment, calling them “a slippery slope” that could lead to more efforts to dismantle the law that “would leave residents of the United States without some of their books, movies, and works of art.”