On March 7, 2023, the Senate proposed bill S. 686, sponsored by Senator Mark R. Warner that could enable the United States government to ban any transaction between people in the United States and foreign countries, with an emphasis on restricting trade on information technologies as well as giving the Secretary of Commerce the authority to monitor transactions between foreign entities and United States citizens and companies.

“This bill will require federal actions to identify and mitigate foreign threats to “ICT” or social media applications, services, and products. It also allows criminal penalties for violations.” Ms. Sharessa Bentley-Crovo, a government teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar said.

Penalties for violating the RESTRICT Act can include civil penalties up to $250,000 or twice the value of the transaction made, and fines up to $1,000,000 or 20 years imprisonment.

Since this bill S. 686 is focused on banning technology made by foreign corporations and governments, this bill would ban many applications students love to use, such as TikTok, Virtual Private Networks, or any other service made by foreign entities.

“While The Bill is officially known as R.E.S.T.R.I.C.T. Act, it is more commonly known as the “Tik-Tok Ban Bill”. It could be used to do just that; ban Tik-Tok and other foreign owned applications that collect data from their users that are deemed a threat to U.S. national security, democracy/elections.” Mr. Andy Smith, a current events teacher at PLD said. “The bill also lists specific countries that should be considered a threat when it comes to applications that collect and sell data of their users.”

Because of the potential of VPNs and TikTok being banned along with government surveillance on online transactions, many teens oppose the bill.

“Students can contact Senators Rand Paul or Mitch McConnell here. They could also contact Rep. Andy Barr here. Rand Paul has already made a public statement not supporting the bill here.” Ms. Crovo said.

Many teens oppose this bill due to the bans that would occur if it was passed. Many people have compared this act to other laws that , like the RESTRICT Act, allow the government to step too far, such as the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act was a bill passed on October 26th, 2001. It was meant to give law enforcement and intelligence agencies the ability to catch terrorists within United States borders, but has since been used to spy on US citizens.