> In what way? Explain that, and let readers decide if it is horrific.

The bill allows the Secretary of Commerce to unilaterally ban products associated with countries of their choosing, with a 20 year prison sentence for any US citizen who attempts to use a VPN to circumvent the access ban.

> a 20 year prison sentence for any US citizen who attempts to use a VPN to circumvent the access ban

That's fucked up and insane. It should also fail a First Amendment test easily, but that all depends on the courts

It’s also worth noting that the Secretary of Commerce is not an elected position.

As if trusting congressmen to ban stuff is a better option.

Better than somebody with zero accountability to the public, with no practical oversight of their actions.

Wow, really? That's crazy!

My wife and I use WeChat because her family lives in China and we want to be able to chat and do video calls with her. If Secretary of Commerce declares that WeChat is illegal that is going to put an enormous strain on my family.

Fuck the US government. There should be mass civil disobedience over this if it somehow passes. Let them try to prosecute millions of citizens. This is no better than what the CCP or Putin's regime does to it's own citizens. I see that the EU and UK have similar designs to control the internet.

Hyper-partisanship has created an army of citizens who are quite ok with the government being authoritarian with no limits on its power as long as they're convinced that their ideology will be the one in control of the monster being created. The monster of course will follow its own path, crushing all that get in its way, not giving a damn about the ideological fantasies of those who allowed it to be created.

The problem is that the people who kick off an authoritarian government are typically the ones who die first. The revolution eats its own. See the brown shirts, the multiple rounds of beheadings during the French revolution, the Bolsheviks, and so on. So whoever hopes the government will continue to support them generally hopes in vain. The machine has two goals: continue existing, and expand its power.

> The problem is that the people who kick off an authoritarian government are typically the ones who die first. The revolution eats its own. See the brown shirts, the multiple rounds of beheadings during the French revolution, the Bolsheviks, and so on.

But, except for maybe some of those in the French Revolution, those are mostly foot soldiers, or leaders who fell victim to distinct subsequent revolutions, not the people who kicked off the resolution getting eaten by it.

> foot soldiers

That's who I was referring to in GGP. Generally the masses don't fare well in revolution.

> ban products

specifically, hardware what sold to >=1MM consumers, or software product >=1MM AAU.

That have a million or more users and are owned by adversaries of the United States.

Seems reasonable.

> are owned by adversaries of the United States

Its not “are owned by”, its “has a current, pending, or potential future controlling interest, direct or indirect, that is, will be, or will come to have been held by an adversary of the united states” (and, yes, the bill itself explicitly and separately refers to both simple future and future perfect, for some reason.)

> That have a million or more users and are owned by adversaries of the United States.

No, it is not only restricted to services that are owned by adversaries of the United States. The text of the bill is very clear and much broader.

(10) ICTS COVERED HOLDING ENTITY.—The term “ICTS covered holding entity” means any entity that—

(A) owns, controls, or manages information and communications technology products or services; and

(B) (i) has not less than 1,000,000 United States-based annual active users at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered holding is referred to the President; or

(ii) for which more than 1,000,000 units have been sold to persons in the United States before the date on which the covered holding is referred to the President.