Joe Biden Weaves His Way Through Elon Musk’s Controversy with Meta Threads

US President Joe Biden has joined Meta’s Threads, X’s (formerly Twitter) biggest competitor. This comes on Biden’s 81st birthday and just days after Elon Musk, who bought X in October 2022, came under fire for allegedly supporting anti-Semitic messaging on his platform. White House spokesman Andrew Bates called it a “disgusting promotion of a lie.”

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

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

However, several major companies have stopped promoting X following Musk’s recent fiasco. This includes Apple, IBM and Disney. Recently, Warner Bros, Sony and Discovery have also stopped advertising on the platform.

This move has certainly influenced Musk’s X, and the billionaire even denied being anti-Semitic. “Last week there were hundreds of false media stories claiming I was anti-Semitic. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Musk said at X.

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

In addition, X has retaliated by suing Media Matters for alleged defamation after its report triggered the platform’s advertising fiasco. Musk later called the release “pure evil.”