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Biden Joins Meta’s Threads after White House Rebukes Elon Musk for ‘anti-semitic rhetoric’ on X
(CTN News) – On Monday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s accounts were established on Meta’s Threads service, which competes with Elon Musk’s X. The White House quickly gained a large following on the app.
The White House, the First Lady, and the Second Gentleman all have their own Threads accounts. Biden’s account gained 2 million followers in the first hour after its launch.
Next week, Musk referred to an antisemitic conspiracy theory as “the actual truth” on X in a message to his 163 million listed followers, prompting the Threads push. Citing the Anti-Defamation League and minority groups, he further claimed that certain “Jewish communities” advocate “anti-white” rhetoric and ideas.
According to White House officials, Musk‘s comments on X amounted to “anti-semitic rhetoric” and were criticized multiple times in the past week.
Subsequently, X saw a halt in funding from a number of prominent advertisers, including Disney and Apple. Musk defended himself on Sunday without apologizing or retracting his remarks.
He wrote on X, “Hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic.” this past week. “That is absolutely not true.”
In response to Elon Musk’s much-maligned changes to X (formerly Twitter), Meta released Threads in July. Threads saw 30 million users sign up in the first few hours after it launched.
More than 100 million people had signed up by mid-July. According to an October estimate by analytics firm Apptopia, Threads had approximately 33 million active users in the United States.
Even though Meta’s Instagram service head Adam Mosseri, had earlier stated that political conversation and news will not be prioritized on Threads, many people who used Twitter have started using the app for news sharing and keeping up with the latest headlines.
According to a statement by the White House sent CNBC, the new Threads accounts have “been in process for several weeks” to debut.
The message emphasized their dedication to reaching individuals where they are. “We have leveraged traditional and digital media as well as SMS programs and other innovative strategies to reach Americans in their daily communication since the start of this administration.”
In his inaugural post on Threads, Biden stated the following:
“Folks, it’s President Biden. You’re hearing from me today from a new platform, but my message to you hasn’t changed: Right now, we face an inflection point – one of those challenging moments in history where the decisions we make today will determine decades to come. But I don’t see a dark, dismal, divided future for America. I see an America about to take off. I’ll continue doing everything in my power to meet this moment – and keep you posted along the way.”
