Staff Reports
In a welcome move, social media platforms Instagram and TikTok have taken action against the promotion of Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter justifying the horrific September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The letter gained traction on Wednesday when users on the Chinese Communist Party-linked TikTok were reading it and even giving it positive reactions, using the hashtag #LetterToAmerica. However, journalist Christina Buttons, reporting on X (formerly Twitter), revealed that Instagram hid the hashtag while TikTok removed it altogether the following day.
TikTok stated that “content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” and vowed to proactively remove it from their platform. Their actions seem to be effective, as searching for the letter now yields no results on TikTok. It’s worth noting that videos were circulating on both TikTok and Instagram, with some urging people to read the letter and others expressing agreement with bin Laden’s skewed perceptions of Israel and the United States.
Social Media Giants Crack Down On Viral Osama Bin Laden Letter Justifying 9/11 Attacks via @DailyCaller https://t.co/A5ou2mXhl8
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) November 16, 2023
TikTok’s recent controversy involving anti-Israel content during the Israel-Hamas conflict, along with its connections to the Chinese Communist Party, have drawn significant criticism. The platform’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, has internal CCP committee members and has raised concerns about the platform’s integrity. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida took to X to express his concern over the trend, stating, “Now trending on social media (especially TikTok), people are saying that after reading Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America,’ they now understand terrorism as a legitimate method of resistance against ‘oppression,’ and America deserved to be attacked on 9/11.”
It is worth noting that media outlet The Guardian removed the letter from their site on Wednesday, after having it published since November 24, 2002. Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 1, 2011. At the time of writing, TikTok, Instagram, and Meta have not responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
