White House briefly follows Twitter accounts of host countries during President's state visits: US
Washington/IBNS: Explaining the reasons for unfollowing the Twitter accounts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and other Indian officials, the White House has said it follows the officials of the host countries in the micro-blogging site briefly during the President's state visits, media reports said.
The official Twitter account of The White House, which is the residence and workplace of the United State's President, has 'unfollowed' Modi, 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.
The change came just two weeks after The White House started following PM Modi, the only world leader to be followed by the same.
Issuing a clarification, a senior White House official told media that the administration follows the Twitter accounts to retweet their messages in support of the state visits.
Donald Trump was on his maiden visit as the US President to India in February.
While the White House has over 22 million followers on Twitter, it follows only 13 accounts.
The White House's unfollowing of the accounts drew a comment from senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who tweeted on Wednesday, " I'm dismayed by the "unfollowing" of our President & PM by the White House. I urge the Ministry of External Affairs to take note."
I'm dismayed by the "unfollowing" of our President & PM by the White House. I urge the Ministry of External Affairs to take note.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 29, 2020
The development also surfaced amid the emergence of news that over 2,00,000 H-1B Visa holders are fearing to lose of legal status to stay in the US amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Their troubles may multiply if US government heeds Congressman Paul Gosar's request to suspend the foreign workers' programme, including H-1B Visa in order to benefit 2.6 crore Americans who have lost their jobs due to coronavirus pandemic.
The decision is expected to have a grave impact on Indians working in the US.
The Indian government has already requested the US government to extend the H-1B and other visas of the Indian citizens till the COVID-19 situation is over after reports appeared that the US government has asked the organisations to fire H-1B visa holders.
