His Majesty’s Treasury opened a Discord account on the instant messaging platform and was met with a flood of abuse.
The government ministry’s official Twitter account posted a link to its server on the chat app on Tuesday, though it has apparently been active since Oct. 14.
Discord allows users to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messages, media, and files in private chats or as part of communities called “servers.”
Despite the Treasury blocking all comments on the platform, which is mostly popular with gamers, users have gotten creative, using emojis alongside their usernames to mock the government, the Conservatives and the chancellor jeremy hunt.
Emojis can be used to react to posts, which has led to a flood of eggplants, middle fingers, transgender flags and EU flags appearing in the chat. Alphabet emoji replies also saw many users post offensive misspellings of Mr Hunter’s surname.
In addition to emoji reactions, users who joined the chat were greeted with a welcome message including their username, which sparked a flood of messages from usernames such as: “Welcome, lock on Prince Andrew. We hope you brought pizza” ; “F*** THE TORIES just came on the server”; and “Margaret Thatcher just came on”.
Discord takes a community-focused approach, with users joining servers dedicated to discussing video games, movies, and podcasts or specific interests and issues, including day trading and cryptocurrencies.
READ MORE: Hunt expected to announce national living wage rise
A Treasury spokesperson said: “Discord is used by a younger audience who would not normally watch our content on other, more established channels.
“It’s important for the government to keep trying to reach new audiences to communicate our policies, even if it means sticking with it.”