HB460

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	460
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to social media.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the popular video-sharing platform TikTok boasts over one billion global users, including nearly forty per cent of the United States' mobile internet users. TikTok is currently one of the fastest growing social media applications in the world, and in 2021, surpassed Google as the world's most popular internet site.

The legislature further finds that TikTok poses serious national security concerns due to its ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing, China, and under Chinese law, Chinese companies operating in China are compelled to share their data with the government upon request. The Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that the CCP could harness the application to influence American users or control or compromise software on millions of electronic devices.

The legislature finds that ByteDance has refused to cease this data flow to the Chinese government despite requests from the United States Committee on Foreign Investment to do so and the CCP may use the United States' user information for intelligence gathering, intellectual property theft, and other illicit purposes.

The legislature finds that TikTok has a powerful algorithm which personalizes the videos shown to users based on their interactions with content, addictive to the point of being dubbed 'digital fentanyl'. Because the vast majority of TikTok users are young adults and adults ages 18 to 34, the legislature therefore believes that the privacy of an emerging generation is under threat.

The legislature finds that bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the United States Congress to ban TikTok from operating in the United States. Until then, a long list of entities have already taken measures to defend their cybersecurity, including the United States Congress, United States military branches, United States state departments and agencies, and nearly two dozen states.

The legislature finds that it is in the best interest of the state to follow the lead of these entities and states to protect the state's cybersecurity.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to prohibit all employees of the state government from downloading or using the TikTok application or visit the TikTok website on state internet networks and government-issued devices, including state-issued cell phones, laptops, on any device capable of internet connectivity, and on government-financed internet networks.

SECTION 2. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"Chapter

Social media on government-issued devices

§ -1 Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Information technology" means any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment used in the automatic acquisition, storage, analysis, evaluation, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information.

"Covered application" means the social networking service TikTok or any application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Limited or any entity owned by ByteDance Limited.

"§ -2 Removal of certain social media applications; established. (a) The director of the office of enterprise technology services, in consultation with the chief information officer, shall develop guidelines, standards, and an implementation date for all state branches of government requiring the removal of any covered application from information technology, and the access of covered the covered applications' websites on any state-funded internet network.

(b) The standards and guidelines established under subsection (a) shall include exceptions for:

(1) Law enforcement activities, national security interests and activities, and security research activity; and

(2) For any authorized use of a covered application under an exception, requirements for agencies to develop and document risk mitigation actions for such use.

SECTION 3. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________