Discussions about the 20-year-old letter have gone viral on short video platform TikTok this week, with some users in the West praising its contents, amid a global divide over the Hamas-Israel conflict.
The letter, written after the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, criticized US support for Israel, accused Washington of funding efforts to “oppress” Palestinians, and included anti-Semitic language.
Bin Laden was killed by US military special forces in 2011 in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden, former leader of al-Qaeda
SCREENSHOT THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
“Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules against supporting any form of terrorism,” TikTok said in a statement on November 16, according to Reuters. According to the statement, reports that content related to the letter was “trending” on the platform were inaccurate.
A search for “Letter to America” on TikTok on November 16 returned no results, with a notice that the phrase may be associated with “content that violates our rules.”
Several US lawmakers have called for a ban on the app, which is owned by a Chinese company, and continued to criticize TikTok ahead of the company’s announcement on November 16.
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer said on X (formerly Twitter) that TikTok is "promoting terrorist propaganda to influence Americans."
"There is no justification for spreading the vile, vicious, and anti-Semitic lies that al-Qaeda's leader spread in the immediate aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in American history," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement on November 16.
On November 15, the British newspaper The Guardian removed the entire content of bin Laden's letter published in 2002. The newspaper said the letter was being shared on social media without full context, and they would direct readers to the original article reporting the letter.
TikTok has previously said its recommendation algorithm fails to deliver certain content to users, and the company has removed hundreds of thousands of videos since October 7 for violating its policies against misinformation and glorification of violence.
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