FILE - In this May 16, 2016 file photo, Kim Kardashian West attends the 20th Annual Webby Awards in New York. After an encounter with armed robbers in Paris on Monday, Oct. 3, Kardashian West went social media silent. On Instagram, where she has more than 84 million followers, the most recent posts were from the day before, having spent fashion week happily sharing snippets of video and photos, including one showing her massive diamond ring. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)
October 04, 2016 - 12:24 AM
NEW YORK - Something unusual happened after Kim Kardashian West's terrifying encounter with armed robbers in Paris: She went social media silent.
At least for a time.
So did her sisters, her mom and other insiders who routinely share, share and share their lives away — about themselves and each other. It's one of their mightiest celebrity strengths, and they're richly rewarded with millions of followers and thousands of commenters.
Surely, Kardashian West will eventually reassure her fans on Twitter and Instagram, Snapchat and her phone app, but hours after robbers burst into the posh flat where she was headquartered during Paris Fashion Week, there was a jarring silence in the shocking aftermath.
She left Paris Monday morning, landing in New York with husband Kanye West by her side a few hours after she was bound and locked in a bathroom. The thieves made off with more than $10 million in jewelry, authorities said.
First word in the states came from Kanye, who abruptly announced at a concert he had to leave because of a family emergency.
Kardashian West was alone at the time the intruders burst in, save a stylist sleeping on a floor below who alerted police, according to the prosecutor's office in Paris.
On Instagram, where Kardashian West has more than 84 million followers, she was frozen in the day before, having spent fashion week happily sharing snippets of video and photos of her fittings, her dinner outfits, her food and her bling, including a massive diamond ring.
The same silence went for Twitter, where she has more than 43 million followers. Her last tweet was a short video promising a "special surprise" for fans if they headed to a Los Angeles boutique to meet her Kim Kardashian game character, one of her phone apps.
Key to Kim's popularity, along with the rest of her family who appear on E! TV's "Keeping up with the Kardashians," is access, a breakneck speed.
Can she, will she, rethink her social media ways? Unlikely.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016