Pope's first exclusive selfie is a fake, says Vatican

New York: Pope Francis' "first selfie" that made rounds of social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram early this week is actually a fake, a media report has said.

"The photo, in which the Pope was seen posing for a selfie, was posted to an Instagram account on Monday with more than 140,000 followers with the caption, 'First #selfie' before several news outlets picked it up," Mashable.com tech website reported on Wednesday.

Later, the Vatican press office confirmed that the Pope does not have an Instagram account and the photo came from a video chat he did with young people around the world in September 2014.

Pope Francis, during a visit to the US earlier this year, warned an audience of "chasing likes" on social media.

"I would dare say that at the root of so many contemporary situations is a kind of radical loneliness that so many people live in today. Running after the latest fad, like accumulating followers on any of the social networks," Pope Francis had said during his US visit.

However, Pope Francis is quite popular on social media and his official Twitter account has more than 8.12 million followers.