United States of America: Announced Digital Consumer Protection Commission Act of 2023 including ownership rule

On 27 July 2023, the Digital Consumer Protection Commission Act of 2023 was announced by US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham. The Act aims to regulate online platforms, including dominant digital platforms. In particular, for the purpose of protecting national security, the Act requires operators of dominant digital platforms to be owned by US citizens or have a US subsidiary with less than half of noncitizen directors. No director of a subsidiary corporation may be a citizen of a foreign adversary. In addition, if more than 10 per cent of the owners of an operator of a dominant platform are citizens of a foreign adversary, the operator shall sequester any back-end data, algorithm, or information about US users on the dominant platform so that it is inaccessible to any subsidiary, affiliate, director, employee, or agent of the operator of the dominant platform that is based outside of the US. Applications to operate by foreign persons are to be filed by the Committee on Foreign Investment.