The Guardian Deletes Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ After It Goes Viral on TikTok
The 21-year-old missive was widely shared “without its original context,” a spokesman for the British outlet says
https://www.thewrap.com/the-guardian-deletes-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-tiktok/
The Guardian made the unusual move Wednesday to delete a 21-year-old letter written by Osama bin Laden from their site after several TikTokers urged followers to read the al Qaeda leader’s missive, causing “Letter to America” to go viral on the social media platform.
Guardian readers are now met with the message, “This page previously displayed a document containing, in translation, the full text of Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to the American people,’ as reported in the Observer on Sunday 24 November 2002. The document, which was published here on the same day, was removed on 15 November 2023.”
In a statement to TheWrap, a spokesperson for the U.K. outlet said, “The transcript published on our website 20 years ago has been widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualized it instead.”
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