Growing Calls to Ban TikTok After Osama Bin Laden Letter to America Goes Viral

The al-Qaeda terrorist mastermind’s letter went viral this week on the platform.

Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri (R), an Egyptian linked to the al Qaeda terrorist group, during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured) in an image supplied by Dawn newspaper on Nov. 10, 2001. Hamid Mir/Editor/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn/Handout via Reuters

A Republican lawmaker suggested that the U.S. ban social media app TikTok after videos showed people showing sympathy for a letter written by slain terrorist leader Osama bin Laden amid the Israel–Hamas conflict.

The al-Qaeda leader sent a letter to the United States in 2002, months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that launched a U.S. war against Islamic terror group. He specifically made mention of the United States’ longstanding support of Israel, which drew praise from TikTok users in widely shared videos—with at least one person saying that bin Laden’s letter “was right.”