TWITTER POLITICS
AWORLD leader’s influence isn’t just measured in votes these days - but by their reach on social media, too.
Twitter has given the public unprecedented access to politicians, while allowing those same politicians to go over the heads of the press to get their messages across.
But which world leaders do it best?
Based on sheer numbers, US President Donald Trump carries the greatest weight on Twitter.
He currently boasts a whopping 51.2 million followers.
That’s nearly 100 times as many as UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
Her 530,000 followers put her well outside the “top 20” most followed world leaders.
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is currently running in second place with 42.2 million followers worldwide.
That is nearly four times more than Turkey’s Recep Erdogan, in third place with 12.9 million.
Indonesia’s Joko Widodo is fourth with a following of 10.1 million, followed by Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto with 7.2 million. Saudi Arabia’s monarchy rules the country - meaning King Salman is both head of state and government. He is sixth on the list, with 6.9 million followers. Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, is next with 5.5 million followers. The country’s president, Vladimir Putin, isn’t on Twitter - but would probably be much higher up the list if he were. In eighth place is Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos (5.4 million followers) and ninth is Argentina’s Mauricio Macri (4.8 million followers).
Completing the top ten is Canada’s Justin Trudeau, who has 4.1 million followers.
The most popular European leader is France’s Emmanuel Macron, with three million followers, with Spain’s Mariano Rajoy in second with 1.7 million. Germany’s long-serving chancellor Angela Merkel is among a handful of world leaders who don’t have Twitter accounts. It is notable that no women feature in the list of the 20 world leaders with the largest followings. And while Trump’s Twitter following might sound impressive, his predecessor Barack Obama still has double the number of followers - with 102 million.