TikTok removes hashtag for Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ after viral videos circulate
NBCNov 22, 2023
TikTok Taking Down Posts Related to Bin Laden Letter
Image copyright: Matt Cardy/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Social media video app TikTok on Thursday said it will ban posts that promote Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter detailing reasons the late al-Qaida leader attacked Americans.
This announcement comes after the letter from bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in 2011 nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the US, was spreading across the platform as part of the debate over the current Israel-Hamas war.
The Spin
Right narrative
Leftists have spent so much time hating America and have made toppling institutions of the US such a large part of their agenda that it was just a matter of time before they got around to turning bin Laden into a hero. That these TikTok users are so susceptible to propaganda shows they were never patriotic to begin with. It's a sad state of affairs, but it's also evidence the leftists must be kept out of power.
Left narrative
The sudden interest in bin Laden's letter is partially driven by the youth of TikTok users and their desire to be controversial in order to generate clicks. But the reason this story got out of control was the right-wing media’s determination to paint a few individual users as part of a much larger movement in order to generate ratings and clicks. This reflects the sorry state of deteriorating US media and politics.