The British newspaper The Guardian has removed a link to a letter attributed to Osama bin Laden, published in 2002, which claimed responsibility for the attacks of September 11, 2001, in which he denounced American support for Israel and called for revenge on the Palestinian people, a text that is now widely used on social networks and taken out of context. in the midst of the Hamas-Israel war. The document "was withdrawn" on Wednesday, the Guardian website now says in place of the text, which has gone viral in recent days on social media, often associated with favourable comments.
«
This transcript posted on our website was widely shared on social media without full context. We have therefore decided to remove it and instead redirect our readers to the article that originally contextualized it," the newspaper said. In this "Letter to America", Osama bin Laden, killed in 2011 by an elite American unit in northern Pakistan, justified the September 11 attacks in the United States and threatened to attack Western interests again.
White House says it is taking action
The letter, which also calls for revenge on the Palestinian people, has resurfaced on TikTok in the context of the conflict sparked on October 7 by the deadly attack by Hamas in Israel, which in retaliation has vowed to eradicate the Islamist group and is carrying out massive bombings in the Gaza Strip. The origin of the letter's resurgence has been linked by several media outlets to a video posted on TikTok on Tuesday by an influencer.
The White House has strongly criticized the phenomenon and TikTok has assured that it is taking steps to remove the affected posts. The White House, in a statement on X, said that "no one should ever insult the 2,977 American families who are still mourning their loved ones, by associating themselves with the despicable words of Osama bin Laden."
«
Especially now, at a time of increasing anti-Semitic violence around the world, and just after Hamas terrorists committed the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust in the name of the same conspiracy theories," the text adds. TikTok assured on X that it was "proactively removing this content" and "investigating how it got on the platform." "This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared on multiple platforms and media outlets," the Chinese app added.