TikTok will prohibit content material that promotes Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter detailing the previous al-Qaeda chief’s justifications for assaults towards Individuals, the app stated on Thursday.
Discussions of the 20-year-old letter have unfold on the platform this week within the context of debate over the Israel-Hamas battle, with some customers within the West praising its contents.
The letter, which was written after al-Qaeda’s 2001 assault on the USA that killed almost 3,000 individuals, criticized U.S. help for Israel, accused Individuals of financing “oppression” of Palestinians and contained antisemitic feedback.
Bin Laden was killed in 2011 in Pakistan by a U.S. navy particular operations unit.
“Content material selling this letter clearly violates our guidelines on supporting any type of terrorism,” TikTok stated in an announcement, including that experiences that it was “trending” on the platform have been inaccurate.
No outcomes
A seek for “Letter to America” on TikTok surfaced no outcomes on Friday, with a discover that stated the phrase could also be related to “content material that violates our tips.”
Some U.S. lawmakers have referred to as for a ban of the Chinese language-owned app and had renewed their criticisms earlier than Thursday’s announcement.
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer stated Wednesday on X, previously Twitter, that TikTok was “pushing pro-terrorist propaganda to affect Individuals.”
White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates stated in an announcement on Thursday: “There’s by no means a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil and antisemitic lies that the chief of al-Qaeda issued simply after committing the worst terrorist assault in American historical past.”
On Wednesday, The Guardian eliminated the total textual content of bin Laden’s letter, which it had revealed in 2002. The information outlet stated on its web site that the letter was being shared on social media with out full context, and that it will as a substitute direct readers to the information article that initially reported on the letter.
TikTok stated beforehand its suggestion algorithm doesn’t push sure content material to customers, and that the corporate has eliminated tons of of 1000’s of movies since Oct. 7 for violating insurance policies towards misinformation and promotion of violence.
It’s tough to realize a full understanding of how prevalent sure content material is on TikTok, partly as a result of exterior researchers have restricted entry to its knowledge, stated Renee DiResta, a analysis supervisor at Stanford Web Observatory.