Former US Ambassador to the UN loses 1.67m followers on Twitter

Former US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, announced that she has a new Twitter account after she had to cancel her old professional account as an official in the US Department of State. Haley’s former Twitter account was followed by 1.67 million Twitter users.

Haley, the former North Carolina’s governor who was appointed by Donald Trump to be the US permanent representative to the UN in 2017, has given up her previous accounts on social media platforms and replaced them with new ones, in accordance with State Department’s rules put in place by the administration of former US President, Barack Obama, which impose restrictions on the department officials’ use of social media.

Such restrictions are aimed at preventing officials from gaining a base of followers on social media platforms at the expense of the state, according to NBC.

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“Due to State Dept rules that were changed by the outgoing administration, I have had to clear my personal Twitter account that I have had for years, the followers, the history, the pictures, and all other content. Please re-follow and re-tweet this to your friends. Here’s to 2019!” Haley twitted.

CNT.Com, a website specialised in technology topics, indicated that the word “delete” may not be the right word to use. However, it can be said that Haley should give up control of her old Twitter account, according to Eric Columbus, Former Special Counsel to the General Counsel for US Department of Homeland Security.

Nikki Haley invited the followers of her previous Twitter account to follow her new one, with more than 168,000 people doing so.

Haley declared her intention to leave her post in October and stressed that she has no plans to run in the next US presidential elections in 2020.