In a Sunday report titled, "A TikTok Ban Could Embolden Authoritarian Censorship, Experts Warn," NBC reporter Kevin Collier cites "critics" of a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese corporate owner, ByteDance, divests from the company. Included among those "critics" is Kate Ruane, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's Free Expression Project. For Ruane, targeting the app would cede America's "moral authority" and give "license to authoritarian regimes around the world to do the same to U.S.-based platforms."

Missing from Ruane's analysis, however, is any disclosure of her employer's financial ties to TikTok. The Center for Democracy and Technology took between $100,000 and $500,000 from the Chinese-owned app in 2022, according to its website, making TikTok one of its largest donors that year. It also accepted between $50,000 and $100,000 from the app in 2021.