White House backs bill granting sweeping powers over private tech usage

The Biden administration is backing controversial new legislation which would grant the federal government sweeping authority over technology used by private citizens.

The Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), was originally described as the “TikTok ban” bill, aimed at banning China-owned TikTok which has reportedly been spying on American users.

But even mainstream media and socialist lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seem spooked by the enormous powers the legislation would grant the federal government. The bill would allow the Commerce Secretary to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate” any technology in which a “foreign adversary” has any interest.

Foreign adversaries currently include the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro. However, the bill allows the Commerce Secretary to designate any entity a “foreign adversary” at will, though Congress can ultimately strike down the designation.

Any technology provider or entity that has at least one million active users is subject to scrutiny by the Commerce Secretary, who can then block American citizens from using that technology — if even one person from a “foreign adversary” has a stake in the company.

The bill would allow the Biden administration, for example, to shut down Twitter based on conspiracy theories of “foreign interference”. Democrat lawmakers and media pundits last year urged the federal government to seize Twitter from Elon Musk due to unfounded claims about the company being compromised by foreign influences after the billionaire released The Twitter Files, a trove of internal communications showing the Biden administration’s successful efforts to censor American citizens. While efforts to confiscate Twitter from Elon Musk based on these claims fell through, the RESTRICT Act would grant the federal government the legal basis to do so.

Some who oppose the bill — on both sides of the political aisle — also claim that Americans who use VPN services could face a $1 million fine and 20 years in prison. Using a VPN to access foreign technology services such as social media platforms could technically fall under the bill’s clause prohibiting anyone to "cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, permit, or approve the doing of any act" forbidden by the legislation.

Sen. Warner’s office, however, denies these claims.

“Someone must be engaged in ‘sabotage or subversion’ of communications technology in the U.S., causing ‘catastrophic effects’ on U.S. critical infrastructure, or ‘interfering in, or altering the result’ of a federal election in order for criminal penalties to apply,” Warner’s Communications Director Rachel Cohen said in a statement. “The bill is squarely aimed at companies like Kaspersky, Huawei, and TikTok that create systemic risks to the United States’ national security, not individual users.”