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Pope Francis Busts A Record Previously held by David Beckham — A Million Instagram Followers In 12 Hours

Pope Francis’ new Instagram account hit one million followers within 12 hours of being launched on Saturday, breaking a record previously held by David Beckham. The Pontiff’s account was l...
Pope Francis Busts A Record Previously held by David Beckham — A Million Instagram Followers In 12 Hours
Written by Pam Wright
  • Pope Francis’ new Instagram account hit one million followers within 12 hours of being launched on Saturday, breaking a record previously held by David Beckham.

    The Pontiff’s account was launched with a photo of him — not a selfie — kneeling in prayer, asking followers to “pray for me” in 9 languages.

    Pope Francis also broke the record for getting one million followers in record time, beating out David Beckham who reached a million in 24 hours.

    The Pope’s Instagram handle is “Franciscus,” and while the account is separate from the official Vatican account, it will still be maintained by members of the Vatican. He also has a Twitter account maintained by others, according to CNN.

    The world was informed on Thursday that the Pope would join the ranks of millions of Instagram users. The news came a few weeks after Pope Francis met with Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom.

    A photo posted by Pope Francis (@franciscus) on

    During their February meeting, the two reportedly discussed “the power of images to unite people across different cultures and languages.”

    As of this writing Pope FrancisInstagram account has 1.5 million followers. His inaugural post has received 186,000 likes.

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