White House explains why it unfollowed PM Modi and President on Twitter

New Delhi : Amid a lot of questions being raised over sudden move of White House to unfollow the Twitter accounts of PM Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind, the governing body has offered an explanation to settle down the speculations.

According to the explanation, White House 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.

“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,” a senior administration official told PTI.

So it was not just PM Narendra Modi but several other Indian accounts which were also unfollowed on Twitter.

During President Donald Trump’s visit to India in the last week of February, the official Twitter handle of the White House — @WhiteHouse — had started ‘following’ the accounts of President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister’s office, the Indian Embassy in the US, the US Embassy in India and the US Ambassador to India, Ken Juster.

Earlier this week, the White House unfollowed all six accounts.