WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Chinese-based social media company Tiktok released a statement on Thursday afternoon denouncing users for promoting a known anti-America 2002 letter written by Osama Bin Laden shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
“Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” TikTok said. “We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform. The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.”
Videos promoting the letter on the platform crossed 10 million before the site removed the content on Thursday afternoon.
“I need everyone to stop what they’re doing right now and go read—it’s literally two pages—”A’Letter to America,'” one TikToker said, proclaiming her support for the Islamic terrorist organization.
Over the past 24 hours, thousands of TikToks (at least) have been posted where people share how they just read Bin Laden’s infamous "Letter to America," in which he explained why he attacked the United States.
The TikToks are from people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and… pic.twitter.com/EwjiGtFEE3
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 16, 2023
In the letter, bin Laden provided an explanation for his and his followers’ dislike toward the US and the philosophy that drove them to murder nearly 3,000 people on 9/11 and convert US commercial aircraft into bombs.
According to the Huffington Post’s Yashar Ali, just one year had passed since the 9/11 attacks when the letter was formally published in The Guardian, but once the TikToks became viral, The Guardian decided to remove it. This has only stoked conspiracy theories among TikTokers, who claim that the removal is a part of the media and its controlling powers’ attempt to stifle the truth.
This online trend followed a riot where pro-Palestine protestors attempted to enter the DNC headquarters on Wednesday night in Washington, DC, calling for a ceasefire before police were able to force them back. Protestors also called for a ceasefire in San Francisco on Thursday morning when they blocked off San Francisco’s Bay Bridge not allowing any vehicles through.
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