How It Happened

The days of our foreign adversaries using applications to target, surveil, and manipulate the American people are numbered.

Yesterday, thanks to the bipartisan efforts of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, as well as many other Members of the House, H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was signed into law.

TikTok now has a clear choice: Separate from its parent company ByteDance—which is beholden to the CCP—and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. TikTok is on the clock.

As Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said last month, “Foreign adversaries, like the Chinese Communist Party, pose the greatest national security threat of our time. TikTok’s access to 177 million American users makes it a valuable propaganda tool for the CCP to exploit.”

She also said, “Companies controlled by a foreign adversary, like the CCP, will NEVER embrace American values like freedom of speech, human rights, the rule of law, and a free press. If given the choice, they will always choose the path for more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation.”

With this bill, the United States has sent a clear message to the Chinese Communist Party that we will no longer tolerate our adversaries weaponizing our freedoms against us. Here’s how we got here:

MARCH 23, 2023

Chair Rodgers called TikTok CEO Shou Chew to appear before the committee to testify on TikTok’s consumer privacy and data security practices, the platforms’ impact on kids, and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. This was Chew’s first appearance before a congressional committee.

At our hearing, it was clear that TikTok was beholden to the Chinese Communist Party and could not be trusted to safeguard American data.

APRIL 14, 2023

Chair Rodgers, Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chair Bob Latta (R-OH), and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) sent a letter to the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce imploring him to speak out against TikTok at the annual Global Ethics Summit.

In the letter the leaders said, “You have an ethical responsibility to tell the audience of this summit and the American people of TikTok’s threats to our national security and privacy, and to further expose how Mr. Chew failed to be completely transparent to Congress.”

MARCH 5, 2024

After nearly a year of bipartisan efforts, H.R. 7521 was formally introduced in the House with 20 cosponsors. Upon introduction of the bill, the Energy and Commerce Committee officially noticed a bipartisan Committee hearing, as well as a markup.

MARCH 7, 2024

The Committee’s classified hearing with members of the intelligence community, including the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence made clear the dangers posed by applications that are controlled by foreign adversaries and the need to take action.

Later that day, the Energy and Commerce Committee marked up and unanimously passed H.R. 7521 to stop foreign adversaries, like the Chinese Communist Party, from targeting, surveilling, and manipulating Americans.

MARCH 13, 2024:

The House of Representatives then passed H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 352-65.

April 20, 2024

This past weekend, the House of Representatives passed the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act, which included H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

April 23, 2024

Tuesday evening, just three days after the House of Representatives, the Senate passed the legislation as well, “delivering a historic rebuke of the video-sharing platform’s Chinese ownership after years of failed attempts to tackle the app’s alleged national security risks.”

April 24, 2024

The bill was signed into law by President Biden on April 24, 2024, starting the clock on TikTok’s requirement to divest from CCP-controlled ByteDance.