REGISTER

email 14 48

A bipartisan bill, backed by the White House and introduced by a dozen U.S. senators on Tuesday, is proposing that the federal government initiate a process to systematically block foreign technology from reaching the domestic market when the technology poses a national security threat. The Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act could result in restrictions for the social media platform TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, according to its supporters.

TikTok has faced opposition from Washington, D.C. due to concerns that it shares data with the Chinese government and could be used in Beijing influence operations. However, TikTok has denied these allegations and migrated user data to centers in the United States. The Citizen Lab, in an analysis conducted in 2021, concluded that TikTok collects types of data similar to what other social media platforms collect, and stated that "the general privacy standards for social platforms is not a high bar."

The RESTRICT Act is not solely targeted at TikTok, according to bill sponsor Sen. Mark Warner, who stated that "We need a comprehensive, risk-based approach that proactively tackles sources of potentially dangerous technology before they gain a foothold in America, so we aren't playing Whac-A-Mole and scrambling to catch up once they're already ubiquitous." The bill's Republican sponsor is Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, and ten evenly split Democrats and Republicans are co-sponsors.

The Biden administration has expressed support for the RESTRICT Act, with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan calling on Congress to quickly "send it to the president's desk." The bill would require the Department of Commerce to review purchases of goods and services from Chinese-based companies for risks to national security, and the department could expand the list of "foreign adversaries" covered by the bill to include additional countries. The department would be empowered to prohibit such transactions or impose measures to mitigate the risk. Technology used in critical infrastructure would receive priority consideration, as would any product that processes the data of more than 1 million American users. Violations of Commerce determinations would be enforceable in criminal and civil court.

The RESTRICT Act is the latest example of widening suspicion by Western governments of Chinese technology, fueled by concerns over the extent of Chinese geopolitical ambitions and objections to Beijing's systemic human rights abuses of its Uyghur population. The United States has already effectively blacklisted Chinese telecom manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, video surveillance equipment makers Hikvision and Dahua, and Hytera, which makes two-way radio systems. The German government has also indicated that it may partially follow suit on Huawei and ZTE gear.

MetricStream TPRM

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

Log in

Please Login to download this file

Username *
Password *
Remember Me

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

MetricStream TPRM

CyberBanner

CyberBanner

Go to top