Twenty-two years after masterminding the September 11th terrorist attacks and 12 years after he was killed by United States (U.S.) special forces while hiding in Pakistan, al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is back in the headlines.
Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” consists of 4,000 words, which were written decades ago by the perpetrator of the September 11th terrorist attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died in the U.S.
The letter and its translation began to circulate on the Internet shortly after the 2001 attacks, particularly among extremist organizations and were first published in the Guardian in 2002.
In a letter addressed to the U.S. and the Americans, bin Laden harshly criticizes the U.S. government, including its support for the creation of Israel, which he calls “one of the greatest crimes”.
Escalation on TikTok
After the escalation of violence in the Middle East, bin Laden’s letter began to circulate again on the Internet.
On the social media platform TikTok, dozens of users, including many young Gen Zers who make up the majority of the app’s users, have begun posting videos in which they quote parts from the letter and talk about how it allegedly gave them a new perspective on the historical context behind September 11th.
Parts of the letter criticizing U.S. support for Israel resonated with some users, at a time when people across the West are becoming increasingly critical of the Israeli government.
TikTokers described the letter as “eye-opening”, with some even going so far as to say that Bin Laden “was right”.
As more people shared their reactions to reading the letter for the first time, the posts went viral. CNN reported that videos discussing the letter had garnered 14 million views as of Thursday.
TikTok has vowed to stop the trend, which it said in a statement “violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism”.
The app added on Thursday that it was working to “proactively and aggressively remove this content and investigate how it got onto our platform.”
It also removed the hashtag #lettertoamerica from its search function.
But they also avoided taking blame, saying the phenomenon of people posting content sympathetic to Bin Laden “is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and media.”, Klix.ba reports.
E. Dz.
