WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party led a bipartisan group of colleagues in filing an amicus brief in TikTok, et al. v. Garland. The brief defends the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which addresses the national security threat posed by Chinese ownership of TikTok, against TikTok's legal challenges that claim the bill is unconstitutional.
Chairman Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi were joined by House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair and Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and 50 of their colleagues across both chambers of Congress.
In the brief, the lawmakers write, "the Divestiture Act [also known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act] does not regulate speech or require any social media company to stop operating in the United States. The Divestiture Act is instead focused entirely on the regulation of foreign adversary control and provides a clear path for affected companies to resolve the national security threats posed by their current ownership structures."
They continue, "Backed by extensive fact finding about the national security threat to the American people posed by certain foreign adversary controlled applications, the Divestiture Act resembles and, indeed, is narrower than numerous other restrictions on foreign ownership that Congress has enacted in other statutory regimes. And Congress did not transcend the limits imposed by the First Amendment and other constitutional restraints because 'it is long settled as a matter of American constitutional law that foreign citizens outside U.S. territory do not possess rights under the U.S. Constitution.'"
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was introduced in March. It prevents app store availability or web hosting services in the U.S. for ByteDance-controlled applications, including TikTok unless they sever ties with entities like ByteDance that are subject to control by a foreign adversary as defined by Congress in Title 10.
Additionally, it creates a process for designating certain social media applications under control of a foreign adversary—per Title 10—that pose a national security risk. Designated applications will face prohibitions on app store availability and web hosting services in the U.S., unless they divest from entities under such control.
