TikTok finally cracks down on Bin Laden 'Letter to America' videos following massive backlash
The platform emphasized in a recent statement that such content blatantly breaches its anti-terrorism policies and they are actively working to remove these videos and are investigating their emergence on the platform.
TikTok has announced its response to the spread of videos promoting a letter by Osama bin Laden, which rationalized the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The platform emphasized in a recent statement that such content blatantly breaches its anti-terrorism policies and they are actively working to remove these videos and are investigating their emergence on the platform.
The 2002 letter, originally published by the Guardian, gained attention on various social media networks earlier in the week, though the extent of its spread was not fully clear, the Guardian reports.
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 number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our… https://t.co/n9Zo7l94r2
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) November 16, 2023
The popularity of Bin Laden's "Letter to America" surged on TikTok, particularly during the Israel-Hamas conflict. The hashtag #lettertoamerica had amassed over 10 million views by Thursday, leading TikTok to block search queries for it.
The trend extended to X, with a comprehensive video shared around the platform, garnering millions of views.
Contradicting the perceived popularity, TikTok clarified that the number of videos featuring the letter was not as high as suggested. They also attempted to scapegoat journalist Yashar Ali for highlighting the post by sharing a post by Ryan Broderick, who claimed that the videos only went viral following Yashar Ali's post.
I spent some time looking into the claim that Bin Laden's "Letter to America" went viral on TikTok. And, after finding some of the videos in this supercut and lining it up with Know Your Meme's timeline, I'm pretty confident saying this tweet is actually what made it "go viral". https://t.co/3Q8Fu2lNnU
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) November 16, 2023
TikTok's response included, “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.” Additionally, TikTok asked readers to recall the "NyQuil Chicken Challenge," which went viral after the media created a panic.
Does anyone remember the NyQuil Chicken Challenge? It only got attention after the media created a moral panic.
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) November 16, 2023
As @broderick notes, the thread below and media attention drove people to engage with these hashtags. From 11/14 - 15 (before tweets and media coverage) the hashtag… https://t.co/HhTN3V9Q8R
Journalist Christina Buttons showed that the virality of #lettertoamerica trend was already underway with hundreds of videos being posted, with a rate of 1,000,000 views per hour. "The only reason it didn’t go more viral is because TikTok nipped it in the bud," Buttons wrote on X.
Some journalists are trying to downplay the virality of the Osama bin Laden TikTok trend, saying the reaction to it was overblown. They’re wrong.
— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) November 17, 2023
I was tracking the #lettertoamerica hashtag in the hours leading up to it and other searches being banned yesterday morning. There… pic.twitter.com/4GXOJ5p2Xj
The videos often directed viewers to the Observer's website, which had published the full translated text of Bin Laden's letter on 24 November 2002.
Following the letter's resurgence, Guardian News and Media removed it on 15 November 2023, stating, "The transcript published on our website had been widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore, we decided to take it down and direct readers instead to the news article that originally contextualized it.”
The White House, addressing the situation on Thursday, firmly stated: “There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and antisemitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history.”
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