Tenth anniversary of @Pontifex’s first tweet

It was 11.30 a.m. on 12 December 2012, when Pope Benedict xvi sent his first ‘tweet’ and imparted his first blessing via social media. Using the handle @Pontifex, Pope Benedict xvi tweeted “Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart”. Today, the account is one of the most followed in the world and has over 53 million followers spread across nine language channels of Vatican News (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Polish, Arabic, and Latin). English and Spanish count close to 19 million followers, Italian and Portuguese over 5 million. From January to date the account has grown by 800,000 users in the past year. The Spanish, Portuguese and Italian accounts have seen the most significant growth. Tweets with ...