TikTok Ban Bill - Patriot Act v2

📄 Wiki page | 🕑 Last updated: Mar 30, 2023

From the HN discussion on TikTok Ban Bill Is PATRIOT ACT 2.0 Trojan Horse:

This is a bipartisan bill and supported by the White House. It's Patriot Act Version 2. Everything they wanted in version 1 and couldn't get, they are putting in here.

It does not contain the word TikTok. It applies to "desktop applications", "mobile applications", "gaming applications", "payment applications", "web-based applications" and everything connected to the Internet that serves >1M users within a year time period.

Fines up to $1M and 20 years in prison. It also uses civil forfeiture and makes it illegal to properly run a VPN.

This has bipartisan support.

It's scary what the world (not just US) is turning into.

Especially interesting are parts concerning the use of VPN to bypass the services banned under this act:

No person may engage in any transaction or take any other action with intent to evade the provisions of this Act, or any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued thereunder.

No person may cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, permit, or approve the doing of any act prohibited by, or the omission of any act required by any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued under, this Act.

They don't specify what the "counsel" means; does making a blog post on how to access TikTok (or any other banned service under this act) now come with a risk of a fine of up to $1M and 20 years in prison?

Land of the free, home of the brave.


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