Written in response to the attack on US land by al Qaeda, the letter denounced US backing for Israel, featured antisemitic slurs, and accused Americans of financing the “oppression” of Palestinians. Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” first surfaced on the infamous video-sharing app TikTok, which has since generated a heated debate about US support for Israel during the Gaza War.
Due to concerns aroused by the ongoing Middle East crisis, content that supports an Al-Qaeda leader’s 2002 letter that justifies attacks on Americans is currently forbidden on TikTok.
However, a contentious debate concerning the 20-year-old letter has surfaced on the platform this week in relation to the Israel-Hamas war. Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, which saw passenger planes crash into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York, killing over 3,000 people.
He had been on the international wanted list for over ten years when US special forces killed him in his Pakistani stronghold in 2011.
Written in the wake of the attack by al Qaeda on US soil, the letter denounced US backing for Israel, featured antisemitic slurs, and accused Americans of financing the “oppression” of Palestinians. It also challenges what he described as the “lies, immorality, and debauchery” of the West and argues that, in this context, strikes against civilians and the US were justified.
“Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” a TikTok statement reads. It said that there was misleading information circulating about the letter “trending” on the platform. On Thursday, a search for “Letter to America” on TikTok returned no results, along with a warning that the term might be linked to “content that violates our guidelines.”
Written in the wake of the attack by al Qaeda on US soil, the letter denounced US backing for Israel, featured antisemitic slurs, and accused Americans of financing the “oppression” of Palestinians. It also challenges what he described as the “lies, immorality, and debauchery” of the West and argues that, in this context, strikes against civilians and the US were justified.
“Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” a TikTok statement reads. It said that there was misleading information circulating about the letter “trending” on the platform. TikTok users were cautioned that the term “Letter to America” might be associated with “content that violates our guidelines” when they searched for the term on Thursday. No hits were found.
America’s Reaction
Senators from the US had once again called for the Chinese-owned app to be banned prior to Thursday’s statement. Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer said on Twitter X, the former platform, that TikTok was “pushing pro-terrorist propaganda to influence Americans.”
The White House harshly criticized the online phenomenon, and TikTok declared that it was going to remove the offensive posts. “There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and antisemitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement on Thursday.
“No one should ever offend the 2,977 American families who are still grieving for loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden,” the White House declared. It went on, “Especially now, when antisemitic violence against Jews is on the rise globally, and shortly after Hamas terrorists killed the greatest number of Jews since the Holocaust under the pretext of the same conspiracy theories.”
The Guardian Removes Bin Laden’s Letter
The Guardian removed the entire text of bin Laden’s 2002 letter on Wednesday. Since the letter was making the rounds on social media without the full context, the news organization said on its website that readers would be routed to the news article that originally featured the letter.
Since October 7, TikTok has removed hundreds of thousands of videos that broke its policies against the dissemination of false information and inciting violence. The company has previously said that its recommendation algorithm does not force users to view specific content.
Several online observatories have reported time and time again that it is difficult to completely understand the degree to which a specific kind of content is popular on TikTok, partly because independent researchers are not allowed full access to the platform’s data.
