US President Joe Biden looks on as he meets with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (not pictured) on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, California, US .USA, on November 17, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The White House released accounts on Monday about goal Thread service for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, gaining a sizable following on an app that competes with Elon Musk’s X.
Threads accounts were also established for the first lady and second gentleman, as well as the White House itself. Biden’s account amassed 2 million followers within an hour of her debut.
Threads’ push comes after Musk last week called an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory “the real truth” about X to his 163 million followers. He also said that some “Jewish communities” promote “anti-white” messages and views, criticizing the Anti-Defamation League and minorities. White House officials repeatedly rebuked Musk for what they called “anti-Semitic rhetoric” about X over the past week.
Several major advertisers, including Apple and disney He later stopped his spending on X. Musk. defended himself on Sunday, without apologizing or rescinding his statements.
“Last week, there were hundreds of false stories in the media claiming that I am anti-Semitic,” he wrote on X. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Goal It first launched Threads in July as a rival to X, formerly Twitter, after Musk made sweeping changes to the app that were widely criticized. More than 30 million people signed up for Threads within hours of its debut. As of mid-July, it had more than 100 million registrations. Analytics firm Apptopia estimated in October that Threads had about 33 million daily active users in the US.
While Adam Mosseri, head of Meta’s Instagram service, previously said that Threads would not prioritize news or political speech, many former Twitter users have flocked to the app to share and stay up to date on the news.
The White House said in a statement to CNBC that the launch of the new Threads accounts “has been in the works for several weeks.”
“We are committed to meeting people where they are,” the statement said. “Since the beginning of the administration we have used traditional media, digital media, SMS programs and other innovative ways to reach Americans as they communicate today.”
Here’s what Biden said in his first Threads post:
“Friends, I am President Biden. Today you hear me from a new platform, but my message to you has not changed: right now, we face a turning point: one of those challenging moments in history when decisions What we take Today will determine the decades to come. But I don’t see a dark, bleak, divided future for America. I see an America on the verge of taking off. I will continue to do everything in my power to meet this moment and I will keep you informed along the way.”
LOOK: President Biden could become very aggressive towards China