TikTok bans videos and hashtags promoting Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

Days after Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ stirred a storm on TikTok, the social media platform noted that it would prohibit any form of content that promotes the letter. Discussions over the 2002 letter spread on the platform this week amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In the controversial letter, the internationally recognised terrorist gave justifications for attacks against Americans, especially the 9/11 terror attacks. Not only this, the social media app has removed the hashtag #lettertoamerica from its search function amid the turmoil. In the letter, Osama stated that the atrocities in Palestine were one of the major reasons why his terrorist group was against the West and especially the United States. As the trend started taking over, many defended Osama’s actions and even said that “he was right all along”.

Following the outrage over the matter, on Thursday, Tiktok issued a statement making it clear that the platform does not promote terrorism in any shape or form. “Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism. We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform,” the social media application wrote on X, formally known as Twitter. “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,” TikTok furthered.

US lawmakers call for the full ban

In the letter, Bin Laden attempted to answer two questions. “Why are we (al-Qaeda) fighting and opposing you (Americans)?” and “What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?” The letter included antisemitic language and homophobic rhetoric. After the trend of sympathising with the terrorists went viral, several US federal lawmakers reignited calls to ban the app. On Thursday, US Rep. Mike Gallagher called such users “massive idiots” and insisted that TikTok should be banned in the United States. "These people are, of course, massive idiots," Gallagher told Fox News on Thursday. “For someone on TikTok to somehow suggest this is America’s fault or that bin Laden, who killed thousands of innocent Americans, was right is absolutely disgusting and further evidence that we need to ban TikTok or force a sale before a Chinese-controlled app, before the Chinese Communist Party, checkmates the free world by controlling the dominant media platform in America that can spread this dangerous, disgusting nonsense,” he added.