There is a new bill to ban TikTok, that is not really about banning TikTok, that has gone under the radar until recently. The very Orwellian worded, “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology,” or RESTRICT act, has some very dangerous provisions. For instance, the act grants the Secretary of Commerce and Director of National Intelligence, the authority to label any foreign group or individual, an adversary of the United States, target any US citizen with associations to a particular foreign adversary as a  threat to the “national interest,” and grants the State discretion to ban software and apps from nations deemed adversaries. The act would also criminalize the use of VPNs to access banned foreign apps, allows the Feds access to all online data without a warrant, and is worded so that the Freedom of Information act and congressional oversight would not apply to Restrict act cases and investigations, so no due process. Also any violations of this act would be tried exclusively in DC Appeals Court, which is one of the most partisan and politically biased courts in the nation.

The Restrict act is a blatant violation of both the 1^st and 4^th Amendments, with very broad and vague language and draconian penalties. For instance, if one causes undue “risk” to US interests or persons, broadly defined, or if one engages in election interference, they are subjected to fines of up to $1million, civil asset forfeiture, and/or up to a 20 year prison sentence. Basically, it is the Patriot Act on steroids or the Patriot Act for the internet, and grants the government total power over regulating communications, grants the Executive branch dictatorial powers, including wartime powers, and formalizes the Fed Intelligence and Law Enforcement relationships across the digital sphere, as we saw with the exposure of the Twitter files, rather than just farming out tech censorship to the private sector.

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