Oct 09, 2024 11:20:00

The US government has opened an official Reddit account to share information about aid for hurricane-hit areas.

In recent years, it has become common for government agencies and politicians to operate official accounts on social media sites such as Facebook and X.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for the 2024 US presidential election , and former President Donald Trump also have accounts on TikTok. It has been discovered that the US government (White House) has recently opened an official account on the overseas bulletin board Reddit to disseminate information about support for hurricane-affected areas.

The White House (u/whitehouse) - Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/user/whitehouse/

The White House joins Reddit and shares hurricane information | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/08/the-white-house-joins-reddit-and-shares-hurricane-information/

The White House started posting on Reddit to talk about Hurricane Milton - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/8/24265598/white-house-official-reddit-account-posting-hurricane

Megan Coyne , the White House's deputy platform director, posted on X on October 8, 2024 local time, 'I'm a big fan of Reddit, so I'm very excited to launch the White House account on the platform today! It will allow us to reach more people to spread important information about the administration's efforts.' The post also includes screenshots of the reactions of users who first noticed the official White House account on Reddit.

As a big Reddit fan, I'm so excited we launched a White House account on the platform today! Meeting more people where they are to get out critical information about the work this Administration is doing 🫡 (With a perfect first comment from this Redditor on our first post) pic.twitter.com/UfnuY7vVfo

— Megan Coyne (@MeganCoyne46) October 8, 2024

If you look at the user page and individual posts of the White House's official Reddit account, you can see that the account has the word 'Official' next to its name. This is part of Reddit's Reddit Pro program , which Reddit offers to official accounts of companies and organizations.

In a thread created on Reddit, the White House's official account posted photos of Joe Biden and others meeting to discuss preparations for Hurricane Helen , which struck the southeastern United States in late September 2024 and caused extensive damage, and Hurricane Milton , which is expected to make landfall in Florida on the night of October 9th.

In addition, he posted information about aid for disaster-stricken areas in threads in North Carolina and Georgia. The official White House account was created on January 7, 2021, but it is unclear whether he was active on Reddit prior to this post.

The Georgia thread post was initially mistakenly deleted by a moderator. It was later restored, with the moderator commenting, 'Post approved. Who would have thought the government would start a Reddit account?'

According to ISD , a non-profit organization that promotes the protection of human rights and the crackdown on extremism and false information, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories such as 'Jews are trying to obstruct disaster recovery and steal the property of victims' were spread on X after the occurrence of Hurricane Helen. It is believed that the reason why the White House started operating an official account on Reddit this time is to prevent the spread of such misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Hurricane Helene brews up storm of online falsehoods and threats - ISD
https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/hurricane-helene-brews-up-storm-of-online-falsehoods-and-threats/

Officials face antisemitic attacks on Hurricane Helene response - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/10/08/hurricane-helene-antisemitic-misinformation-x/