Vatican City: Pope Francis will make his Instagram debut Saturday, March 19, Vatican prefect for communications Dario Viganò told Vatican radio.
This is an addition to the Pope’s social media presence in Twitter account with 8.9 million followers.
Instagram is an online mobile social networking service to share photos and videos.Its users can share pictures and videos publicly or privately on the app and through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.
This news about Pope joining new medium emerged from the pontiff’s recent meeting with Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom. The two reportedly discussed the power of images and how they can unite people. The meeting apparently prompted the Pope to open an Instagram account.
There have been fake popes on Instagram before, hoping to cash in on the pontiff’s popularity. Pope Francis has already condemned such attempts
One faux pope posted a fake selfie of Pope Francis, claiming to be the real deal, which even fooled CNN. That account no longer exists.
The Pope will use the name @Franciscus.
Instagram was created by Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app. The service rapidly gained popularity, with more than 100 million active users by December 2014.
Facebook acquired the service in April 2012 for approximately US$1 billion. In 2013, Instagram grew by 23 percent while the parent company only grew by 3 percent.