The Senate boasts that the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (“RESTRICT”) Act targets China’s TikTok.
Then why doesn’t the bill name TikTok?
That’s because it includes all forms of communication, mainly technology from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.
“The RESTRICT Act comprehensively addresses the ongoing threat posed by technology from foreign adversaries by better empowering the Department of Commerce to review, prevent, and mitigate ICT transactions that pose undue risk, protecting the US supply chain now and into the future,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the bill’s sponsor, wrote in a press release.
All in the name of national security. It’s another freaking Patriot Act. It’s an act that gives the executive branch way too much power. The bill allows the Secretary of Commerce to review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.”
The bill identifies other “relevant executive department and agency heads” who will have a role: Secretaries of Treasury, State, Defense, and Homeland Security, attorney general, U.S. trade representative, director of National Intelligence, administrator of general services, and FCC chairman.
Those names are important because the Secretary of Commerce will work with those people to “take action to identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate, including by negotiating, entering into, or imposing, and enforcing any mitigation measure to address any risk arising from any covered transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”
By any person. Anyone.
This might be the worst piece of tyrannical legislation I’ve ever seen. Forget the Squad, who are just big talkers—Senate Democrats are the most horrible, ghoulish totalitarians in politics. For Thune, Romney and Capito to throw in with them isn’t surprising, but it’s still… https://t.co/Vp5TN7qJOk
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) March 28, 2023
The RESTRICT Act is not limited to just TikTok. It gives the government authority over all forms of communication domestic or abroad and grants powers to “enforce any mitigation measure to address any risk” to national security now and in any “potential future transaction” pic.twitter.com/0mFNEKLUqU
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
So what happens if you are designated a national security threat? What can they access of yours to confirm it? Everything.
Notice the preemptive attack on quantum encryption in there, too. pic.twitter.com/rXMY8v8lOI— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
It also allows the Director of National Intelligence and Secretary of Commerce the authority to universally designate new “Foreign Adversaries” without notifying congress and a 15 day window to notify the president. It also requires a joint resolution of Congress to overturn. pic.twitter.com/ieVwPO0Ls6
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
If you recall from before, “Foreign Individuals” can now also be US citizens that are deemed a national security threat. Once designated, the bill grants authority to enforce any action deemed necessary to mitigate the threat, with no due process and few limits on punishments. pic.twitter.com/8IreN90m88
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
After the federal government has detained you without due process to mitigate the “immediate threat” you pose, what kind of punishments await you in court? $1,000,000 fine, 20 years in prison and forfeiture of everything you own. pic.twitter.com/072BG6POTk
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
This act also grants unlimited hiring power to positions of enforcement, unlimited funds with little or no review and immunity to FOIA. pic.twitter.com/TTtfIvdIEZ
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
Where does it stop?
