TikTok Shattered as Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ Receives Viral Praise: ‘Terrorist Propaganda’
The text of an incendiary “letter to America” from 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden has gone viral on TikTok and drawn praise from young users, and U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are criticizing the app. Chinese property for promoting “terrorist activities.” propaganda.”
In the letter, bin Laden claimed he orchestrated the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center that killed nearly 3,000 Americans because the United States “attacked us in Palestine.”
Bin Laden called the creation of Israel a “crime that must be erased.” He also claimed that the AIDS epidemic was “an American satanic invention” and objected to American companies allowing women to have jobs, furious: “Women are used to serve passengers, visitors and strangers to increase their profit margins.” Profits”.
The anti-Semitic tirade continued by claiming that in the United States, Jews “control its politics, its media, and its economy.”
The Guardian, which had published the full text of the letter in 2002, removed it on Wednesday. citing the fact in a statement that it was being “widely shared on social media without full context. Therefore, we have decided to remove it and direct readers to news article that originally contextualized it instead.”
The TikTok trend appears to have been fueled by Lynette Adkins, a social media influencer with 12 million followers who has been profiled in the Los Angeles Times.
in your videowhich has received nearly 100,000 likes and more than 5,500 comments since it was posted on Wednesday, Adkins told his followers to “stop what you’re doing right now and go read a letter to America.”
The most atrocious quotes from Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’
- “Your law is the law of the rich and the wealthy, who dominate their political parties and finance their electoral campaigns with their donations. Behind them are the Jews, who control their policies, their media and their economy.”
- “These governments have surrendered to the Jews and given them most of Palestine, recognizing the existence of their State over the dismembered members of their own people.”
- “We also ask you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than policies of subduality, theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting Jews because this will result in more disasters.” for you”.
- “The British handed over Palestine, with their help and support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; Years full of oppression, tyranny, crimes, murders, expulsions, destruction and devastation. The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals.”
- “And, of course, there is no need to explain and demonstrate the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime that must be erased. “Each and every person whose hands have been contaminated by contributing to this crime must pay the price, and pay it in spades.”
- “These governments prevent our people from establishing Islamic Sharia, using violence and lies to do so.”
- “Do not expect anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge.”
- “Furthermore, the American military is part of the American people. It is these same people who shamelessly help the Jews fight against us. The American people are the ones who employ both their men and women in the American forces that attack us. That is why the American people cannot help but be innocent of all the crimes committed by Americans and Jews against us.”
Adkins followed up with several other posts, including one in which he talked about “three movies to watch after reading ‘a letter to America'” and another in which he reacted when The Guardian removed the text and declared: “America is losing”. the PR war was bad.”
“The Guardian’s removal of that post is actually one of the worst things they could have done. “I don’t know who was behind it or what the reasoning was, but I feel like it literally confirmed everything we read in the letter,” Adkins said.
When contacted for comment, a TikTok spokesperson said that “the content promoted by this letter clearly violates our rules regarding supporting any form of terrorism” and added that the company was “proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it came to our platform.”
At the same time, the company bizarrely attempted to deny that bin Laden-related content had gone viral, even though the videos racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
“The number of videos on TikTok is small and reporting on trends on our platform is inaccurate,” the spokesperson added. “This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared on multiple platforms and media.”
Many of the TikTok users who promoted the letter were women.
A second said she would “never look at life the same way, I will never look at this country the same way.” Please read it and if you have read it tell me if you too are going through an existential crisis at this very moment, because in the last 20 minutes my entire point of view on the entire life I have believed and lived has changed. .”
Other social media user whose video went viral He said that after reading the letter, “it is clear to me that the actions of 9/11 and the acts committed against the United States and its people were only the preparation of our government failing other nations.”
Elsewhere, TikTok user @Raeyreads posted the full text from bin Laden’s letter to his TikTok account, where it has received more than 1 million views.
“It’s crazy that we’re only now finding out about this. The US government truly believes they are untouchable and never learned from the past,” one user wrote in response.
“The fact that I agree with a lot of what he says…. This explains why the US government didn’t make this public or teach us about it,” said another.
The videos in support of bin Laden emerged just days after The Post reported that several Republican lawmakers had renewed their calls for TikTok to be banned for spreading content that critics considered anti-Israel during the nation’s ongoing war with Hamas.
Critics from both political parties have alleged that TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is effectively a mass surveillance and propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Freelance journalist Yashar Ali shared several of the viral video clips on X, saying without criticizing any of the publications that “TikToks are people of all ages, races, ethnicities and origins. Many of them say that reading the letter has opened their eyes and that they will never look at geopolitical issues the same way again.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said the images showed “how Chinese-owned TikTok is pushing pro-terrorism propaganda to influence Americans.”
“These people sympathize with Osama bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for 9/11 and thousands of American deaths,” Gottheimer said. “TikTok should be banned or sold to an American company.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) described TikTok as “a geyser of terrorist propaganda and the most effective surveillance tool ever invented for a foreign government.”
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), another strong supporter of the TikTok ban in the United States, also weighed in on the alarming situation.
“It is now trending on social media (especially TikTok) for people to say that after reading Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’, they now understand that terrorism is a legitimate method of resistance against ‘oppression’ and that the United States United deserved to be attacked on 9/11,” Rubio said.
The Guardian’s website now displays a message to readers explaining that the text had been removed.
“This page previously displayed a document containing, in translation, the full text of Osama bin Laden’s ‘letter to the American people,’ as the Observer reported on Sunday, November 24, 2002. The document, which was published here the same day , was removed on November 15, 2023,” the message said.
