White House, Biden join Meta’s Threads soon after Musk backlash

The White House has launched accounts for itself, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ:META) short-posting text app Threads from Instagram, which competes with Elon Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter).

The accounts will likely see sizable followings on Threads, as Biden’s account gained 2M followers within an hour of its launch. Biden and Harris are also expected to launch their personal accounts on Threads.

The launch of the new Threads accounts “has been in process for several weeks,” the White House said. “We are committed to meeting people where they are.”

The move comes just days after Musk faced backlash for endorsing an antisemitic post, which led to multiple companies including Apple and IBM pulling their advertisements from X.

“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates had said.

Musk, for his part, said he was not antisemitic. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I wish only the best for humanity.”