Obama’s tweet on Charlottesville violence sets new record

New York, Aug 16 (IANS) Former US President Barack Obama's tweet in response to the deadly violence in the Charlottesville, Virginia rally garnered 2.8 million 'likes,' making it the most-approved post in the Twitter's history.

Obama's tweet that he posted on August 12 set the record, surpassing the previous record-holder for most-liked Twitter post which was singer Ariana Grande's distraught message following the Manchester terror attack in May that garnered 2.7 million 'likes', Variety reported late on Tuesday.

Quoting South African political leader late Nelson Mandela, Obama tweeted: "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."

This tweet is also the fourth most-retweeted post ever, with more than 1.16 million retweets.

The top spot for retweet is held by a tweet from the Nevada teen who was trying to get 18 million retweets for a free year of chicken nuggets from Wendy's (at 3.7 million). At second spot is the Ellen DeGeneres Oscars selfie (3.4 million) from the 2014 Academy Awards which is also the third most-liked (2.4 million likes) tweet on the micro-blogging platform.

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson 2011 tweet at Harry Styles (2.57 million) is ahead of Obama's tweet in terms of reposting.

Obama (@BarackObama) has 93.3 million followers while current US President Donald Trump has 35.9 million followers (@realDonaldTrump).

Trump defended the white-supremacist marchers in Charlottesville, reiterating that "both sides" were to blame for the resulting violence in which three people were killed and 19 injured.