South Lake Today

Washington, D.C. — Florida Congressman Daniel Webster, R-Clermont, played a pivotal role in the passing of H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, aimed at safeguarding Americans from potential surveillance by applications owned by foreign government adversaries.

“This bill prevents foreign government adversaries from being able to target Americans and threaten our national security through social media applications,” expressed Rep. Webster regarding the importance of the legislation.

Highlighting the risks associated with certain applications, Rep. Webster singled out TikTok, asserting, “TikTok, a company that is owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, spies on and collects a concerning amount of data on Americans.” He further explained how this data could be exploited by the CCP and Chinese intelligence services to target and manipulate users, citing real-time instances where TikTok used false messaging to prompt users to call their Representative.

The legislation, which specifically focuses on applications controlled by foreign adversaries such as China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia, addresses the concerns surrounding national security threats posed by data collection and surveillance of American citizens.

Webster emphasized, “Today’s bill utilizes a targeted and narrow mechanism to protect Americans from national security threats by ensuring applications owned by foreign adversaries are unable to collect data and surveil American citizens. Importantly, it does this without targeting Americans or granting the President any expanded authority over social media applications.”

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act serves as a proactive measure to mitigate risks associated with foreign-controlled applications and safeguard the privacy and security of American citizens.