Almost 12 years after he was killed, Osama Bin Laden is back in the mainstream discourse after an essay he wrote in 2000, titled ‘Letter To America’, went viral on TikTok. Users began sharing a link from The Guardian on the social media platform, which the website has now removed. In the widely circulating letter, Osama addressed the American public to explain Al-Qaeda’s militant philosophy. Notably, he talks about Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Read the full letter below:
The Guardian has deleted the letter from Osama Bin Laden but here you go
— Azka Binte Saleem (@Soka_Akza) November 16, 2023
Thousands of Americans are realising what kind of meth their presidents were on 🥴
Soon there will be riots in the US by their own#lettertoamerica #Letter_to_America #OsamaBinLaden pic.twitter.com/0vF6KHMSPz
The letter has since then gone viral on Twitter and TikTok with users declaring the letter has changed their perspective of 9/11 attacks. Users reported the hashtag had gained over 9 million views on the social media platform
Some analytics on the new TikTok trend of reading Osama Bin Laden’s “Letter to America.”
— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) November 16, 2023
The hashtag #lettertoamerica on TikTok is currently growing at a rate of 1 million views per hour.
The majority are videos of people posting their “mind blown” reactions after reading it… pic.twitter.com/C8fNYfr3y2
If you are being told people on tiktok are suddenly becoming OBL fans, that's because you are only following dipshits or don't spend a lot of time on tiktok at all.
— gal galoch (@antifatwa) November 16, 2023
It's not that!
1/2 https://t.co/axQAo4ts1b pic.twitter.com/QSz1SG3K7w
TikTok has said in a statement that they have removed the videos as the trend violates rules about “supporting any form of terrorism.” But the letter and excerpts from TikTok videos are still available on Twitter.
NEW: TikTok has blocked the hashtag #LettertoAmerica that creators used on videos about Osama bin Laden's 2002 letter.
— J.D. Capelouto (@jdcapelouto) November 16, 2023
Even just searching "letter to America" on TikTok without the hashtag comes back with "No results found."
Our story: https://t.co/fJr3PsnZda pic.twitter.com/2PVnSjCS4C
