48637 Presidential Documents Federal Register Vol 85 No 155 Tuesday August 11 2020 Title 3— Executive Order 13942 of August 6 2020 The President Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok and Taking Additional Steps To Address the National Emergency With Respect to the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 50 U S C 1701 et seq IEEPA the National Emergencies Act 50 U S C 1601 et seq and section 301 of title 3 United States Code I DONALD J TRUMP President of the United States of America find that additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency with respect to the information and communications technology and services supply chain declared in Executive Order 13873 of May 15 2019 Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain Specifically the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China China continues to threaten the national security foreign policy and economy of the United States At this time action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular TikTok TikTok a video-sharing mobile application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd has reportedly been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over one billion times globally TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users including internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information— potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors build dossiers of personal information for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage TikTok also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities This mobile application may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus These risks are real The Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration and the United States Armed Forces have already banned the use of TikTok on Federal Government phones The Government of India recently banned the use of TikTok and other Chinese mobile applications throughout the country in a statement India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asserted that they were ‘‘stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India ’’ American companies and organizations have begun banning TikTok on their devices The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security Accordingly I hereby order Section 1 a The following actions shall be prohibited beginning 45 days after the date of this order to the extent permitted under applicable law VerDate Sep 11 2014 17 06 Aug 10 2020 Jkt 250250 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 4705 Sfmt 4790 E FR FM 11AUE0 SGM 11AUE0 48638 Federal Register Vol 85 No 155 Tuesday August 11 2020 Presidential Documents any transaction by any person or with respect to any property subject to the jurisdiction of the United States with ByteDance Ltd a k a Zı jie´ Tia odo ng Beijing China or its subsidiaries in which any such company has any interest as identified by the Secretary of Commerce Secretary under section 1 c of this order b The prohibition in subsection a of this section applies except to the extent provided by statutes or in regulations orders directives or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order c 45 days after the date of this order the Secretary shall identify the transactions subject to subsection a of this section Sec 2 a Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids has the purpose of evading or avoiding causes a violation of or attempts to violate the prohibition set forth in this order is prohibited b Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited Sec 3 For the purposes of this order a the term ‘‘person’’ means an individual or entity b the term ‘‘entity’’ means a government or instrumentality of such government partnership association trust joint venture corporation group subgroup or other organization including an international organization and c the term ‘‘United States person’’ means any United States citizen permanent resident alien entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States including foreign branches or any person in the United States Sec 4 The Secretary is hereby authorized to take such actions including adopting rules and regulations and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA as may be necessary to implement this order The Secretary may consistent with applicable law redelegate any of these functions within the Department of Commerce All departments and agencies of the United States shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order Sec 5 General Provisions a Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect i the authority granted by law to an executive department agency or the head thereof or ii the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary administrative or legislative proposals b This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations VerDate Sep 11 2014 17 06 Aug 10 2020 Jkt 250250 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 4705 Sfmt 4790 E FR FM 11AUE0 SGM 11AUE0 Federal Register Vol 85 No 155 Tuesday August 11 2020 Presidential Documents 48639 c This order is not intended to and does not create any right or benefit substantive or procedural enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States its departments agencies or entities its officers employees or agents or any other person THE WHITE HOUSE August 6 2020 FR Doc 2020–17699 Filed 8–10–20 11 15 am VerDate Sep 11 2014 17 06 Aug 10 2020 Jkt 250250 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 4705 Sfmt 4790 E FR FM 11AUE0 SGM 11AUE0 Trump EPS GPH Billing code 3295–F0–P