Pope Selfie is a Hoax

In case you haven’t heard, you can’t believe everything you see on the Internet.

Today, a viral photo purporting to be Pope Francis’ “first selfie” was being circulated on social media, much to the glee of pope fans.

But it turned out to be a fake.

While the image portrays a smiling pope and is close cropped as are many a selfie, the image was taken from a video chat the pontiff did back in September of 2014.

A solo pope selfie would be improbable as Francis has warned against “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," Francis told American bishops at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Pennsylvania during his trip to the United States. "Running after the latest fad, a 'like', accumulating followers on any of the social networks."

Many news organizations fell for the hoax, which was posted by an Instagram account claiming to be the official account of the Vatican. It has 140,000 followers.

Pope Francis has more than eight million followers on Twitter, but he has claimed he is a technological “dinosaur.”