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New York: TikTok is removing videos on its platform that promote Osama bin Laden’s letter justifying the September 11 attacks against the US, saying that the user-generated content “clearly violates” its rules on “supporting any form of terrorism.”
“We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform,” TikTok said in a post on X.
Guess who went viral on TikTok? Osama bin Laden in 1998.Credit: AP
TikTok, already facing scrutiny from US lawmakers over possible ties to the Chinese government, said the videos quoting the late al Qaeda founder were not unique to it and had also appeared on other social media websites.
The terror group’s leader claimed Jews controlled American affairs, labelled AIDS a “Satanic American Invention,” and condemned the creation and existence of Israel.
One TikTok user said: “I need everyone to stop what they’re doing right now and go read – it’s literally two pages – go read ‘A Letter to America’. Come back here and let me know what you think. Because I feel like I’m going through an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people are. So I just need someone else to be feeling this too.”
New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer said the videos showed that TikTok was “pushing pro-terrorist propaganda to influence Americans,” adding that the platform should either be banned or sold to an American company.
Social media users rediscovered Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” — translated and published by the Observer in 2002 — amid heated online debate over Israel’s war against Hamas.
The UK newspaper on Wednesday removed the full text of the letter, saying that the transcript had been shared on social media “without the full context” and that it was now directing readers instead to “the news article that originally contextualised it.”
The attacks on September 11, 2001 killed nearly 3000 people, according to the US Department of State.
Bloomberg with Chris Zappone
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