Obama’s record tweet
FORMER US President Barack Obama has broken the record with the most-liked tweet in Twitter’s history, with his post quoting Nelson Mandela in response to the deadly violence in Charlottesville over the weekend.
Obama’s August 12 tweet was posted after a rally of white nationalists and neoNazis resulted in the death of a protester. The post set the record with more than 2.73 million likes yesterday, according to Twitter.
Obama quoted Mandela, the South African political and anti-apartheid resistance leader, in a series of three tweets.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
The first the Obama’s August 12 tweets surpassed the previous record-holder for most-liked Twitter post, which was Ariana Grande’s message following the terrorist attack in Manchester in May. That has 2.7 million likes.
The third most-liked tweet of all time currently is Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars selfie from the 2014 Academy Awards, with 2.4 million likes.
Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday, the driver charged with killing the protestor at the Charlottesville rally was previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife
James Alex Fields Jr, 20, is accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.