'Are their minds literally poisoned?' Bill Maher shares concern over Osama bin Laden's 'Letter to America' going viral on TikTok
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Comedian Bill Maher voiced his concerns over the way information is disseminated among youth on social media after Osama bin Laden's notorious "Letter to America" went viral on TikTok.
"The kids now have jumped on TikTok from supporting Hamas to supporting Osama bin Laden," said Maher in his opening monologue on the latest episode of 'Real Time'.
Laden's two-page letter was initially published by the Guardian newspaper in 2002, a year after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people and left many others gravely injured.
In the letter, the al Qaeda leader, who was killed in a US special operation in Pakistan in 2011, attempted to justify the targeting and killing of American civilians while criticizing US military bases in the Middle East and the government’s apparent support for Israel.
San Francisco was cleaned in preparation for Xi's arrival. It's like when you "clear history" before letting someone use your computer. pic.twitter.com/2hyIWzSw2v
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) November 18, 2023
Earlier in November, the letter resurfaced on TikTok, with dozens of young Americans describing an awakening to America’s role in global affairs. By Thursday, November 16, videos featuring the two-page paper had already received at least 14 million views, with users urging others to read the letter.
What did Bill Maher say about viral TikToks of Osama bin Laden's 'Letter to America'?
Talking about the viral TikToks, Bill Maher said, "Is this the Tide pods? Is this the eating the Tide… is this where this is coming from? Are their minds literally poisoned now?"
He was possibly referring to the hazardous and popular TikTok challenge from a few years ago, in which teenagers challenged one another to consume Tide pods.
Maher revisited the topic during a panel discussion with Donna Brazile, a Georgetown University professor, and former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The presenter continued by reading a passage from a Washington Post article, which stated that by Wednesday night, "Letter to America," had "become a point of discussion among left-wing creators on the video app, with some saying its critiques of American foreign policy had opened their eyes to a history they’d never learned."
"Yeah, they didn’t learn any history. That’s the problem. So now you’re gonna get it from bin Laden," said Maher, adding, "Bin Laden, really?"
Kinzinger responded, "It is a failure of parenting. It’s a failure of the education system, to tell people how evil this stuff is. And there’s something with TikTok."
He continued, "This is a serious national security threat when you have young Americans saying that bin Laden is getting it right and our foreign policy is wrong because of whatever reasons they’ve come up with."
TikTok was slammed after Osama bin Laden's 'Letter to America' resurfaced on the platform
Bill Maher's remarks follow the backlash received by TikTok from several Jewish celebrities, including Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing, and Amy Schumer, in response to a wave of antisemitic comments that supposedly went viral on the social media platform following Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.
The New York Times reports that earlier this week, more than thirty prominent individuals engaged in a heated conversation with TikTok officials.
During the call, Cohen apparently said, "What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis. Shame on you."
"Letter to America" was removed from TikTok's search function after the indignant outcry. A representative claimed that videos including the letter were against the community standards of the platform.
Spokesperson Ben Rathe stated, "Content promoting this letter violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism," according to NBC News.
He added, "We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform. The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media."
