A letter written by Osama bin Laden in 2002 to justify the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has gone viral on TikTok. Some users are drawing connections between the letter and the Israel-Hamas war.
The “Letter to America” gained traction after TikTok users started sharing a translated copy that was published by The Guardian in November 2002.
The left-wing British newspaper has since taken down the letter, stating that it was being widely circulated on social media without the full context.
“Therefore we decided to take it down and direct readers instead to the news article that originally contextualised it,” the page now says.
TikTok also took action against the letter, but users found a way around it by using screenshots of the letter.
CNN reported that the videos shared on the app have amassed over 14 million views. However, searches with the hashtag #lettertoamerica now yield no results after TikTok deemed it in violation of its guidelines.
Some TikTok users expressed that the letter changed their perspective of the U.S. government, particularly when bin Laden addressed the Palestinians and America’s support for Israel.
In one video, a user stated that the letter has altered her view of life and the country, prompting an existential crisis.
Bin Laden’s support for the Palestinians was largely dismissed at the time because his al Qaeda terrorist group was primarily an adversary of Saudi Arabia, not Israel.
The letter attempts to justify the killing of people and makes direct references to the Quran. It also accuses the U.S. of hypocrisy for detaining individuals in Guantanamo Bay without trials, despite claiming to be champions of human rights, among other points.
TikTok stated that content promoting the letter violates its rules on supporting terrorism. The company is actively removing such content and investigating how it made its way onto the platform.
The company also clarified that videos related to the letter were not trending, with only a few circulating on the app, and that it wasn’t just a TikTok trend.
While the letter is being discovered by younger generations, who make up a significant portion of TikTok users, older generations are reacting critically to the youngsters’ perceptions of the letter.
CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen expressed his confusion at the letter’s circulation. He noted that most people either were not born or were very young at the time of bin Laden and 9/11, so they lack historical context. Additionally, there is no evidence that the letter was indeed written by bin Laden, and some of its content is inconsistent with his other writings, he added.
