https://sputnikglobe.com/20231116/us-lawmaker-renews-call-for-tiktok-ban-after-osama-bin-ladens-letter-to-america-goes-viral-1115010524.html
US Lawmaker Renews Call for TikTok Ban After Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ Goes Viral
US Lawmaker Renews Call for TikTok Ban After Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ Goes Viral
Sputnik International
A US federal lawmaker has issued a new call for the social media app TikTok to be banned, after a historical document penned by a top international terrorist leader unexpectedly went viral on the platform earlier this week.
2023-11-16T21:05+0000
2023-11-16T21:05+0000
2023-11-16T21:03+0000
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The latest cultural phenomenon to sweep TikTok is a 2002 document by the then-leader of the Al-Qaeda* terrorist group, Osama bin Laden. Titled “Letter to the American People,” the document is an attempt by bin Laden to justify his organization’s terrorist attacks against the West, including the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia, which killed nearly 3,000 people.According to analysts, many shared the letter on TikTok, expressing their shock at the cogency of some aspects of his message, especially with regard to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, with some feeling they had misjudged the terrorist leader.The subject of an international manhunt for over a decade, bin Laden was killed in northern Pakistan in May 2011 by a US special forces raid. Despite killing bin Laden and launching a so-called “War on Terror,” the US has failed to destroy bin Laden’s organization, which became a major influence on certain rebel groups in the Syrian Civil War and continues to operate in countries from Afghanistan to Yemen.However, the letter seems to have gone viral after being rediscovered recently as part of a reckoning with Western nations’ long-standing support for Israel amid the highly destructive war in Gaza, where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have launched an air assault and ground invasion that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the last six weeks. Support for Israel has evaporated among Western youth, who have taken to the streets in protest in unprecedented numbers to demand a ceasefire and an end to their governments’ support for Israel, whose anti-Arab policies they have labeled “apartheid,” following United Nations human rights experts.The Guardian, whose 2002 publication of the letter was being linked to in the posts, has since deleted the article, although it remains in the Wayback Machine internet archive.US Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) on Thursday called such users “massive idiots” and said the incident was evidence that TikTok should be banned in the US, or otherwise forced to sell its US assets to a US-based company."So for someone on TikTok to somehow suggest this is America’s fault or that bin Laden, who killed thousands of innocent Americans, was right is absolutely disgusting and further evidence that we need to ban TikTok or force a sale before a Chinese-controlled app, before the Chinese Communist Party, checkmates the free world by controlling the dominant media platform in America that can spread this dangerous, disgusting nonsense,’ Gallagher continued.“It is time for a ban or forced sale before it is too late,” he added.A TikTok ban has long been Gallagher’s pet project, cosponsoring a bill last year alongside US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (R-IL) based on the idea that the app poses a national security risk because it is being manipulated by the Communist Party of China.Officials in Beijing and in ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, have denied that any such connection exists, including in congressional testimony by CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is ethnically Chinese but has Singaporean nationality.Previously, former US President Donald Trump considered a ban or forced sale of TikTok alongside his administration's attacks on other leading Chinese tech companies, and his successor, Joe Biden, has continued to support such efforts.As of April 2023, at least 34 US states have enacted some kind of ban on government employees having the app on their government-issued devices, and Montana has attempted to enact a complete ban on TikTok in the northern state. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Austin, Texas, heard arguments about whether the Lone Star State’s ban is a violation of its state constitution.*Al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) are terrorist organizations banned in Russia and many other countries
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231115/pentagon-quietly-ramps-up-ammo-for-israel-1114970857.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231110/israel-tiktok-and-desantis-height-among-topics-at-fiery-republican-debate-1114848527.html
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mike johnson, osama bin laden letter to america, tiktok ban, palestinian struggle
mike johnson, osama bin laden letter to america, tiktok ban, palestinian struggle
US Lawmaker Renews Call for TikTok Ban After Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ Goes Viral
A US federal lawmaker has issued a new call for the social media app TikTok to be banned, after a historical document penned by a top international terrorist leader unexpectedly went viral on the platform earlier this week.
The latest cultural phenomenon to sweep TikTok is a 2002 document by the then-leader of the Al-Qaeda* terrorist group, Osama bin Laden.
Titled
“Letter to the American People,” the document is an attempt by bin Laden to justify his organization’s terrorist attacks against the West, including the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
In the letter, bin Laden recapitulates several decades of Western domination and war-making across the Middle East, including support for the creation and defense of Israel, and blames the West for the erosion of the importance of Islam in Muslims’ lives.
He also draws direct equivalence between the American people and the actions of the US government, writing: “the American people are the ones who choose their government by way of their own free will; a choice which stems from their agreement to its policies.”
According to analysts, many shared the letter on TikTok, expressing their shock at the cogency of some aspects of his message, especially with regard to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, with some feeling they had misjudged the terrorist leader.
The subject of an international manhunt for over a decade, bin Laden was killed in northern Pakistan in May 2011 by a US special forces raid. Despite killing bin Laden and launching a so-called “War on Terror,” the US has failed to destroy bin Laden’s organization, which became a major influence on certain rebel groups in the Syrian Civil War and continues to operate in countries from Afghanistan to Yemen.
However, the letter seems to have gone viral after being rediscovered recently as part of a reckoning with Western nations’ long-standing support for Israel amid the highly destructive war in Gaza, where the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) have launched an air assault and ground invasion that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the last six weeks.
Support for Israel has evaporated among Western youth, who have
taken to the streets in protest in unprecedented numbers to demand a ceasefire and an end to their governments’ support for Israel, whose anti-Arab policies they have labeled “apartheid,” following
United Nations human rights experts.
15 November 2023, 11:18 GMT
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, TikTok said, “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 Guardian, whose 2002 publication of the letter was being linked to in the posts, has since deleted the article, although it remains in the Wayback Machine internet archive.
US Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) on Thursday called such users “massive idiots” and said the incident was evidence that TikTok should be banned in the US, or otherwise forced to sell its US assets to a US-based company.
"These people are, of course, massive idiots," Gallagher told US media. "I just came from watching the footage that the Israeli Embassy compiled about the October 7 attack. It is horrific. You are seeing Salafi jihadists - Hamas in this case, but al-Qaeda was a Salafi Jihadist organization - kill babies, behead innocent civilians with garden hoes. These images are very disturbing and show the true face of evil."
"So for someone on TikTok to somehow suggest this is America’s fault or that bin Laden, who killed thousands of innocent Americans, was right is absolutely disgusting and further evidence that we need to ban TikTok or force a sale before a Chinese-controlled app, before the Chinese Communist Party, checkmates the free world by controlling the dominant media platform in America that can spread this dangerous, disgusting nonsense,’ Gallagher continued.
“It is time for a ban or forced sale before it is too late,” he added.
10 November 2023, 04:01 GMT
A TikTok ban has long been Gallagher’s pet project, cosponsoring
a bill last year alongside US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (R-IL) based on the idea that the app poses a national security risk because it is being manipulated by the Communist Party of China.
Officials in Beijing and in ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, have denied that any such connection exists, including in
congressional testimony by CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is ethnically Chinese but has Singaporean nationality.
More recently, Gallagher has said TikTok should be banned because it is “brainwashing our youth,” calling it “digital fentanyl” after the synthetic painkiller responsible for a dramatic spike in overdose deaths in the US in recent years.
Previously, former US President Donald Trump considered a ban or forced sale of TikTok alongside his administration's attacks on other leading Chinese tech companies, and his successor, Joe Biden, has continued to support such efforts.
As of April 2023, at least 34 US states have enacted some kind of ban on government employees having the app on their government-issued devices, and Montana has attempted to
enact a complete ban on TikTok in the northern state. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Austin, Texas, heard arguments about whether the Lone Star State’s ban is a violation of its state constitution.
*Al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) are terrorist organizations banned in Russia and many other countries
