US President Joe Biden Joins Meta Threads Amid Elon Musk’s Controversy: All Details – News18

Reported By: Shaurya Sharma

Last Updated: November 21, 2023, 09:19 IST

Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

Joe Biden now has an account on Threads. (Reuters file)

Joe Biden now has an account on Meta Threads, X’s biggest rival. Notably, this move comes amid Musk’s ongoing anti-Semitism controversy. Here are the details.

US President Joe Biden has joined Meta’s Threads, X’s (formerly Twitter) biggest rival. This comes on the occasion of Biden’s 81st birthday, and only a few days after Elon Musk, who acquired X in October 2022, was under fire for allegedly supporting an anti-Semitic post on his platform. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates called it an “abhorrent promotion” of a “hideous lie.”

I turned 81 and all I got was a new social platform! Thanks for the well-wishes, folks. And to the workers at the birthday candle factory, I hope your union got you overtime,” Biden wrote on Threads. Notably, this was Biden’s first post on the platform. Biden also has an official account (@POTUS), which would most likely change hands once the US President changes, just like X.

However, President Joe Biden and the White House’s respective X accounts are still active as of writing this, and there are no indicators that point towards a potential total shift to Threads. While the creation of new accounts on Threads could have been influenced by Musk’s recent antics, the White House, as per a report by The New York Post, was working on this process for several weeks.

That said, multiple big-name companies have paused advertising on X after Musk’s recent fiasco. This includes Apple, IBM, and Disney. More recently, Warner Bros, Sony, and Discovery have also paused advertising on the platform.

This move has certainly affected Musk’s X, and the billionaire even denied that he was anti-Semitic. “This past week, there were hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Musk said on X.

“I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all,” he added.

Moreover, X, in retaliation, has also sued Media Matters for alleged defamation after its report kickstarted the advertising fiasco for the platform. Musk later called the publication “pure evil.”