Tik-tok pulling content off its platform after videos promoting Osama bin Laden's letter to America started gaining momentum. This morning I read a letter to America. The letter, written in 2002, one year after 9/11 by the Al Qaeda leader, justifying one of the worst terrorist attacks in the US that left nearly 3,000 dead.

I just read a letter to America.

Go read it. Users at times reading the letter, while others noting how the letter resonated with them. In particular, portions criticizing US support for Israel, accusing Americans of financing oppression of the Palestinians. Do you all know that the tax dollars are given to Israel to help them kill all the people in Palestine. The video is adding to an already contentious and heated debate online over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

I literally read it last night.

Everything he said was valid.

This man didn't care about us.

All it took was reading one paragraph in a letter that mentions Palestine for a terrorist. A video montage of these TikToks, some which garnered millions of views, getting the attention of the social media platform. Today, publishing a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing that the 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 that originally published a transcript of the letter in 2002 has now pulled the text from their site saying the letter has, quote, been widely shared on social media without the full context.

I can't believe I have to say this, but you all need to stop shilling for Osama.

Bin Laden's letter to America. Us lawmakers now using these videos as reason to renew calls to ban the Chinese-owned app. Tonight that concern reaching the White House, releasing a statement on the alarming trend saying in part, quote, There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and anti-Semitic lies that the leader of Al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history. No one should ever insult 2,977 American families, still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden. While TikTok has taken down Bin Laden's letter to America, that may not end the controversy or stop social media users from accessing other platforms to share the letter. Tom? Reima, Alice.

Thank you for that. For more legal analysis and what this means for the app and other social media platforms, I want to bring in BBC's legal analyst, Angela Sanadella. She joined us now live on set. Angela, we wanted to have you on this because you have a huge following on TikTok, more than a million followers. When you saw this trend take off, what did you think?

Well, it's horrifying, obviously. It's not something I agree with, but TikTok primarily it's social. It's not educational. It's not news. It's almost like a giant game of telephone. That's what it is.

Then there's Republicans and also Democrats as well, lawmakers in Congress who are convinced the Chinese are using this app to influence culture in America. The algorithms in China are different than the algorithms here. Do you think this is something that spread and there were nefarious intentions for it, or do you think it just spread by accident because that's the way TikTok works?

I don't think so. I think there's a big difference between Chinese and American TikTok, and that's because in China, free speech itself is restricted. That's why there are so many more restrictions. In the US, as much as TikTok and these social media apps want to restrict and push and choose what content to have on the app, they're also restricted by the First Amendment, by free speech. But when you think about Section 230, that's the law that makes every user responsible for their user-generated content. The platform itself is shielded. People seem to think it's in order to protect big tech and protect the platforms, but in reality, it's to prevent big tech from becoming the regulator of free speech. That's why I think this turned into a giant game of telephone.

Why is this spread and why do you hear this happening on TikTok and not on Instagram?

Well, I think TikTok is just faster. Everything is amplified. I think it's like a rumor in a high school. All the kids are on TikTok. And if you hear a rumor, that's why it spreads.

But do you think the algorithm, I want you to explain this to me and our viewers, is it pushing this because more people kept clicking on it? I mean, why did it become so widespread? I guess is what I'm asking.

Yes, that's exactly it. But I really can't say that it's different from other platforms because all the other platforms are trying to copy TikTok's algorithms. So if anything, they're all doing the exact same.

Thing right now. But when people engaging with this letter, someone posts it and people start engaging and liking it, how does it work?

That's exactly right. So it's engagement and it's also watch time. So the percentage of the video that is watched by the users on their algorithm then will blow it up further. So first TikTok will send a video to a few hundred people and if those people watch that video all the way through or keep rewatching it, then it will continue to amplify. But that's always why it tends to be shocking content like this that.

People watch all the way through. So then the counterargument, right? Because say this was a news article, there would be context, there would be what happened on 9/11, there would be stuff about Osama bin Laden. I mean, it would take you two or three minutes to read. It wouldn't be just a quick hit like TikTok gives you. Does TikTok then kick back the counterarguments to the Osama bin Laden letter?

No, they don't at all. So they don't feel they have responsibility to educate the viewer at all, whatsoever. They never try to provide balanced content. If I like a post that is, for example, pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel, I will continue to be fed that content over and over. It depends on what you engage with, what you like, what you comment on. That tends to be by people who have one perspective just go down that road far deeper once they start.

To know. I know I feel like this is almost like the Katie Kirk segment about the Internet, but there is a large group of Americans that are solely getting their information from TikTok, and it is being pushed out, unprofessionally, unregulated, and without context. How dangerous is that?

I think it's very dangerous. I also think that's why right now there's these class actions. There are regulators who are trying to stop that. But I think people should be getting their news from you.

Not from TikTok. I appreciate that. Angela, Sanadela, thank you so much. We hope more people listen to you. Angela, we appreciate that. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the BBC News app or follow us on social media.