max_sendfeld

I'm not a lawyer, but there's something that really concerns me about H. R. 7521 - a.k.a. the "Tiktok bill" that I was hoping to get people’s thoughts on: The bill makes it “unlawful for an entity to distribute, maintain, or update a foreign adversary controlled application [...] within the [...] borders of the United States”.

However, “application” is defined as “a website, desktop application, mobile application, or augmented or immersive technology application”.

This part deeply worries me. It is one thing to force Apple or Google Play not to offer a particular app on the app store. But in order to prevent a website from being “distributed” the government would need to create a large piece of technical infrastructure that filters and censors all web traffic coming to the US - akin to the “great firewall of China” or the separate internet that Russia is starting to build.

No one seems to be talking about this, but given the strangely eager 50:0 vote on the issue, I’m wondering if this might be the motivation behind it?

You can find the full text of the bill here:

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240311/HR%207521%20Updated.pdf