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11:08, 17-Aug-2017
Obama's anti-racism tweet in response to Charlottesville violence creates history, becomes most liked tweet
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Former US President Barack Obama's response to the weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, has broken the record for most Twitter likes, with a number of over three million on the social media platform.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." Obama tweeted Saturday night, quoting Nelson Mandela from the late South African president's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom."
Alongside the tweet, Obama posted a picture of himself smiling at toddlers of different racial backgrounds, which was taken at a daycare center in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2011 by then-White House photographer Pete Souza.
Obama also sent two additional tweets to complete the full Mandela quote.
Screengrab from Barack Obama's twitter account
Screengrab from Barack Obama's twitter account
As of Wednesday evening, the Obama tweet has had more than 3.9 million likes, making it the most-liked tweet of all time. It also ranks seventh among the most retweeted tweets according to tweet tracking site Favstar.
The previous most-liked tweet belongs to pop star Ariana Grande whose response to a deadly bombing at her concert in England was liked for 2.7 million times.
The Aug. 12 post, Obama's first tweet in three weeks, came after deadly white supremacist violence erupted in Charlottesville, a historic college town, over the weekend.
Violence during the Unite the Right rally August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, US. /Reuters Photo
Violence during the Unite the Right rally August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, US. /Reuters Photo
A 32-year-old woman was killed after an allegedly neo-Nazi sympathizer from Ohio intentionally drove a sports car into a crowd of anti-hate protesters in downtown Charlottesville.
The rally of white nationalists and neo-Nazis also led to the death of two Virginia State Police troopers, who lost their lives in a helicopter crash, and left dozens injured.
Obama keeps one of the most-followed Twitter accounts, with 93.5 million followers while, his successor Donald Trump, a more prolific Twitter user, only maintains 35.9 million followers for his primary account.
Source(s): Xinhua News Agency