The Vatican said Pope Francis’ official account liked a photo of the Brazilian model in a scantily clad dress after he sought an explanation from Instagram.
It is not clear when Natalia Garibotto’s photo was confirmed by the Pope’s verified account, but according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), “Like” was still appearing on November 13, before being disallowed the next day.
Garibotto’s management company, Co.O.A. The company did a lot of publicity and re-posted the image on its own Instagram account last Friday, saying the company had received ‘POP’s B Facial Blessing’.
Garibotto, who has 3.4 million Instagram followers, also reportedly joked: “At least I’m going to heaven.”
Citing sources close to the Vatican’s press office fee, the CNA said an investigation was under way to determine how the photo was selected.
A team of people manages the Pope’s various social media accounts.
A Vatican spokesman told the Guardian: “We can exclude that ‘Like’ came from the Holy See, and he turned to Instagram for an explanation.”
Pope Francis is very popular on social media, with his official facial Instagram account, operating under the username Francis, attracting 7.4 million followers. The account does not follow any other accounts.
On Twitter, the Pope is followed by 18.8 million accounts. In 2017, he was the world’s most popular leader on social media platforms.
But he rarely composes social media content himself.
“Pope is not like Donald Trump, he doesn’t sit around all day using his phone or computer to tweet,” said Robert Mykons, English-language editor of the Catholic daily newspaper La Croix.
“For example, he allows tweets – but not likes – and on very rare occasions he has said that he would like to tweet something because of a developed situation or crisis. So it had nothing to do with this – it’s the conversation section, and how it happens … who knows. “
