In 2022, Center for Democracy and Technology removed more than$ 100, 000 from a Chinese-owned app.
A U.S. ban on TikTok could “embolden authoritarian censorship,” according to NBC News, and it is doing so through a think tank that has removed more than$ 100, 000 from the Chinese-owned app.
In a Sunday statement titled,” A TikTok Ban May Elevate Authoritarian Censorship, Professionals Warn”, NBC writer Kevin Collier cites” reviewers” of a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese business owner, ByteDance, extracting from the business. Included among those” critics” is Kate Ruane, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Free Expression Project. For Ruane, targeting the game would surrender America’s “moral power” and provide “license to autocratic governments around the world to do the same to U. S. based systems”.
Missing from Ruane’s research, nevertheless, is any reporting of her business’s financial ties to TikTok. The Center for Democracy and Technology took between$ 100, 000 and$ 500, 000 from the Foreign- owned app in 2022, according to its site, making TikTok one of its largest contributors that time. It also accepted between$ 50, 000 and$ 100, 000 from the game in 2021.
The disclosure comes as TikTok scrambles to ward off the forced buyout expenses, which the House of Representatives largely passed last month. TikTok prompts its users to enter their zip code and contact their representatives as the invoice advanced through the lower room, raising questions about the phone’s public relations strategies. The blitz resulted in an increase in phone calls to congressional offices, some of which were made by teenagers who threatened to kill themselves if the app was banned.
In at least one instance, a House member took money from a TikTok lobbyist to vote against the bill. That member, California Democratic congressman Robert Garcia, received$ 500 from Michael Bloom, TikTok’s director of government relations.
Requests for comment were not responded to by NBC or the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The think tank, which is based in Washington, D. C., bills itself as the “leading nonpartisan, nonprofit organization fighting to advance civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age”. It has emerged as one of the top opponents of the TikTok bill, with the center signing a letter to Congress on March 6 to urge them to oppose the bill.
” H. R. 7521 is censorship—plain and simple”, the letter states. The United States ‘ Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech would be violated by passing this legislation.
While another expert cited in the NBC piece, former Obama administration official Chris Painter, suggests U. S. lawmakers are targeting TikTok because they do n’t “like what was being said” on the app, the bill’s sponsors—Reps. Mike Gallagher ( R., Wis. ) and Raja Krishnamoorthi ( D., Ill. ) —introduced the legislation to address national security concerns.
According to a former ByteDance executive, the app is owned by China-based company ByteDance, which means the Chinese Communist Party has” supreme access” to the well-known social media site and its data.
While doing so, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who was scheduled to testify in a congressional hearing in March 2023, refrained from revealing what would happen if the Chinese government required the company to turn over user data. Domestic companies are required to comply with the government’s intelligence services when requested by a Chinese national security law that prohibits them from disclosing the work.
On its website, the Center for Democracy and Technology says its “financial supporters have no influence or control over CDT’s projects or priorities, including the content of educational programs, research, written reports, or other work product”.
Still, the think tank’s gift acceptance policy says donors can send financial gifts with “restricted purposes”. In those cases, the center will “respect the intent of the donor”, so long as the “restrictions” are consistent with its “mission and priorities”.
In addition to TikTok, the Center for Democracy and Technology has accepted six- figure contributions from other tech giants such as Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Google.
