Hurricane Milton Reddit: The White House's Unprecedented Engagement on Social Media

Hurricane Milton Reddit: The White House Goes Viral

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 Milton.

“Yep, it’s really us!” the White House account states boldly 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. Antonini mentions that the White House account flaunts an “Official” badge as part of the Reddit Pro program.

Curious Beginnings and Community Interaction

Whether this account is brand-new or an existing one is a mystery, considering that the account’s creation day—known as cake day in Reddit lingo—was January 7th, 2021. The White House did not respond to whether it has used the account before.

Megan Coyne, the White House’s deputy of platforms director, posted on X indicating that the account was launched today. One of the posts from The White House in r/Georgia was deleted by mods for violating specific subreddit rules about post titles matching headlines. However, the post has since been reinstated, sparking chatter within the community. “Who tf really thought the govt would start a Reddit account?” remarked one mod, reflecting the surprise among users.

What This Means for Future Communication

This adventurous route taken by The White House encourages transparency and real-time communication, positioning the administration to address citizens' concerns regarding Hurricane Milton proactively.