The RESTRICT Act is a bill recently introduced in the U.S. Congress that would establish a risk-based process directing the Department of Commerce to identify and mitigate foreign threats to information and communications technology products and services.

The RESTRICT Act would:

• Require the Department of Commerce must identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, and mitigate transactions involving ICT products and services in which any foreign adversary has any interest, and that pose an undue or unacceptable risk to U.S. national security or the safety of U.S. persons.
• Require Commerce to identify and refer to the President any covered holding that poses an undue or unacceptable risk to U.S. national security or the security and safety of U.S. persons. If the President determines that the holding poses such a risk, they may compel divestment of or otherwise mitigate the risk associated with the holding.
• Give Commerce the authority to designate any foreign government or regime as a foreign adversary upon a determination that the foreign government or regime is engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to U.S. national security or the security and safety of U.S. persons, and remove such a designation. These actions are subject to congressional disapproval.
• Educate the public and business community about the threat by requiring the Secretary of Commerce to coordinate with the Director of National Intelligence to provide declassified information on how transactions denied or otherwise mitigated posed undue or unacceptable risk.
• Prioritize evaluation of ICT products used in critical infrastructure, integral to telecommunications products, or pertaining to a range of defined emerging, foundational, and disruptive technologies with serious national security implications.
• Ensure comprehensive actions to address risks of untrusted foreign ICT by requiring the Secretary to take up consideration of concerning activity identified by other USG entities.

This act would also establish civil and criminal penalties for violations under the bill and would criminalize the use of VPNs to access web services the government designated as a threat to national security or threat to American citizens.

Lawmakers could use the RESTRICT Act to ban the popular video sharing app known as Tiktok, amid ongoing concerns regarding national data security.

“The Republican Party has not taken an official position on the Restrict Act, but we are very concerned about the potential privacy issues surrounding TikTok, and other foreign controlled applications that can be used to collect sensitive information on U.S. citizens,” Alabama GOP Chairman John Wahl said. “This is a serious security concern for our state and nation, and I was glad to see Governor Ivey ban the use of TikTok on state networks.”

He went on to say, “I just don’t like the idea of communist nations like China being able to collect information on our citizens. Here in America, we believe people have fundamental rights, and that those rights should be protected. I don’t trust companies owned by the Chinese government to respect the privacy of the American people.”

There are not currently any bills in the Alabama House/Senate that aim to enact a state ban on Tiktok.

The News Courier inquired with the Alabama Democrats and Limestone Democrats, but did not receive a comment by press time.