The American Innovation and Choice Act Puts National Security at Risk

Senate Judiciary will soon consider legislation that would undermine U.S. national security against China and other adversaries

Washington, D.C (01/14/2022) – This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced its intention to soon begin marking up S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, legislation that national security experts criticize as dangerous to Americans’ security.

This bill will jeopardize the safety and privacy of American consumers by restricting America’s most innovative companies’ ability to apply security standards and forcing data-sharing with third parties, including foreign competitors, like Huawei and Alibaba, and would force companies to choose between protecting your security information or being sued. 

Because these measures prohibit bundling services, platforms would be inhibited from deploying their own tools to fight malware, viruses, and spam. This would harm American technology leadership and competitiveness, with corresponding risks to U.S. national security. 

Twelve former national security officials, including former directors of the CIA and a former Director of National Intelligence, recently sounded the alarm around the national security implications of this and other congressional proposals, saying

“Recent congressional antitrust proposals that target specific American technology firms would degrade critical R&D priorities, allow foreign competitors to displace leaders in the U.S. tech sector both at home and abroad, and potentially put sensitive U.S. data and IP in the hands of Beijing.”

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last month, former White House national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien outlined his concern that S. 2992 will give China an advantage. He said, in part:

“Despite significant criticism of this approach from national security leaders, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have introduced bills that are nearly identical to the House legislation. These bills hit only American companies while leaving Chinese tech rivals—including those with significant U.S. operations like Tencent and TikTok—untouched. Writing laws that directly benefit Chinese and other foreign tech competitors is not how to compete with China.”

Learn more about how S. 2992 puts our national security at risk here.

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