Less than a year before the 2024 elections, the White House embraced the Threads platform, launching Twitter threads for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as reported by Reuters.
Notably, First Lady Jill Biden, various White House accounts, and their Spanish-language counterparts also joined Threads, marking a strategic move by the Biden administration to broaden its social media reach and engage with Americans on its achievements in the lead-up to the presidential elections.
A White House official emphasized their commitment to reaching people wherever they are, highlighting Threads as an additional avenue to communicate with the American public about the administration’s historic actions.
This decision lends additional credibility to Threads, a platform owned by Meta, which has faced recurrent criticism from Elon Musk. The introduction of these new accounts is anticipated to position the platform prominently and bolster its legitimacy as a viable alternative to X (formerly Twitter).
Despite X continuing its dominance as a platform for public discourse, it confronts mounting criticism regarding content moderation deemed detrimental by both public and private sectors.
White House spokesperson Robin Patterson clarified that the move to Threads does not signal any shift in their use of the X platform, stating, “We continue to use X, and there are no plans to change our use of the X platform.”
In his inaugural Threads post, President Biden assured followers that, while the platform might be new, his message remains unchanged.
The White House took a stand last week against a post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the X platform, accusing him of endorsing anti-Semitic claims.
An official from the White House underscored that plans to launch Threads accounts had been in progress for several weeks.
Biden’s campaign effectively navigated tensions surrounding the president’s use of social media. Last year, he signed a law prohibiting the use of TikTok on government devices, prompting his campaign to carefully weigh the political risks of disengaging from platforms with millions of users based on security concerns articulated by his administration.
NBC News reported this year that Biden’s campaign would abstain from having a TikTok account after Biden voiced concerns that the Chinese-owned app posed a threat to national security.
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