Real story behind the White House unfollowing Modi

After the White House unfollowed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and PMO’s Twitter handle, the action drew a lot of reactions on social media among Indians. The reactions poured in like Trump had only three weeks of friendship as it was earlier claimed that PM Modi was the only world leader followed by the official Twitter account of the Donald Trump White House.

Today, the White House has explained the reason behind the unfollowing action. It said that its Twitter handle typically ‘follows’ the accounts of officials from host countries for a brief period during a presidential trip, to retweet their messages in support of the visit.

Trump visited India in February and the official Twitter handle of the White House — @WhiteHouse — had started ‘following’ the accounts of Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind, the Prime Minister’s office, the Indian Embassy in the US, the US Embassy in India, and the US Ambassador to India, Ken Juster. Four days ago, the White House is seen ‘unfollowing’ all these six Twitter handles.

As an explanation to the ongoing rage over the unfollowing act, a senior administration official told – “The White House Twitter account normally follows senior US government Twitter accounts, and others as appropriate. For example, during the time of a presidential visit, the account typically follows for a short time, the host country’s officials to retweet their messages in support of the visit”.