Reddit isn’t the first place you’d think to see official statements and news coming from the federal government, but today, The White House is on the site making posts. You’ll often see staffers posting on social media platforms like Instagram and X to announce updates and reach a larger audience, so this feels new. The Biden administration’s “whitehouse” account has new posts in subreddits r/NorthCarolina and r/Georgia to discuss the federal response to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
“Yep, it’s really us!” the White House account says in one of the threads. Usually, that’s not an entirely convincing way to prove your identity, but Reddit’s Gina Antonini tells The Verge in an email that it is indeed a legitimate account. Whether it’s a brand-new account is a mystery, as the account’s creation day (or cake day, as Reddit calls it) is January 7th, 2021. The White House did not respond to whether it has used the account before.
The White House’s deputy of platforms director, Megan Coyne, posted on X saying the account was launched today.
One of the posts from The White House on r/Georgia was deleted by mods for violating the subreddit’s specific rules about post titles matching headlines. If the current administration wants to be on Reddit, it’ll have to pay attention to each community’s various standards.
