The gist The letter, published in 2002, sparked a strange trend on social networks, especially on Tik Tok, where the topic had 14 million views as of Thursday. Users comment on the document in particular in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas and the situation in the Gaza Strip. In response, the Guardian website, where a copy of the letter was available, decided to delete it.
It is a letter that is over 20 years old and is once again controversial. The day after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, published a letter justifying his actions. In this “Letter to the American People,” the jihadist explains, among other things, that he attacked the United States because of its support for the State of Israel.
In recent days, and in parallel with the war between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, this letter has resurfaced on social networks. This message, justifying the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, went viral, especially on Tik Tok.
United States support for Israel
Among the elements discussed by the platform’s users is bin Laden’s statement that 9/11 happened because of the United States’ support for Israel. “They sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers against us and formed an alliance with the Israelis to oppress us and occupy our land; that is the reason for our response on 9/11,” the letter reads in part.
American media outlet The Wrap attributes the resurgence of writing to a video posted by an account with 12 million subscribers. “I want everyone to stop doing what they’re doing and read ‘Letter to America.’ “I feel like I’m going through an existential crisis right now,” the user says in the caption of her video.
“We have been lied to our whole lives”
“My eyes were opened,” one user responded in the comments to the video. Another who shared the letter on their profile wrote: “We have been lied to our whole lives. I remember people cheering when Osama was found and killed.” According to CNN, the topic had at least 14 million views as of Thursday, November 16. In one of her many follow-up videos, the user behind the viral video said, “TikTok will save this generation” because she says older people are “programmed to think a certain way.” His account now appears to have been suspended from Tik Tok as he cannot be found.
A spokesperson for the Chinese social network told The Wrap that the video in question “violates the platform’s rules” against “supporting any form of terrorism,” noting that the famous letter had gone viral on other social networks besides his own be.
In response to the virality of this sensitive content and the controversy it causes, the media outlet The Guardian, where a copy of the letter was published in 2002, made the decision to delete it from their website 21 years after its publication. “This page previously displayed a document containing the full text of Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to the American People,’ as the Observer reported on Sunday, November 24, 2002. The document, published here on the same day, was deleted on November 15, 2023,” explains the Guardian to the address where the letter was located. The media explains that they preferred to remove the document and rather redirect their readers to an article that “contextualizes” the letter and its comments.