“We don’t believe that pope or his social media team has liked the photo,” said Vatican spokesperson
Natalia Garibotto posted a photo on Instagram in early October, wearing a crop top and miniskirt. The scantily dressed photo of the Brazillian model was liked by the account belonging to Pope Francis on November 13.
On November, 14 the image got unliked after getting noticed by thousands of people. Matteo Bruni, the Vatican Press Office director, said they are investigating where the like came from.
The Holy See press office refused to comment on the situation when approached by CNA.
Pope Francis has 7.4 million followers on Instagram, but he follows no account, including Garibotto’s account. He has a great fan following on social media and has attracted 18.8 million followers on Twitter. In 2017, he was declared as the most popular world leader on social media.
The editor of Catholic daily newspaper La Croix, Robert Mickens, said that the pope does not spend much of his time on social media, and nearly all his posts are managed by his team.
“Pope is not like Donald Trump, who has a mobile in his hand to tweet all day long. He approved what his team wants to post, but he never controls likes.
He rarely asks his team to tweet something on his behalf, and that too only if the matter is extremely serious and demands attention. Thus, that like has nothing to do with Pope Francis,” said Robert Mickens.
Garibotto shared several articles reporting the incident and cracked a joke saying, “I am on my way to heaven.” In an interview with Tom Scibelli, she passed another sarcastic comment saying, “My mom hates my ass pictures, but I’m happy that pope likes them.”
The model received a lot of popularity after the like from Francis’ account as thousands of people reposted it.