Obama’s response to white supremacy is most-liked tweet of year

Ellis Palmer, formerly of EA WorldView and the University of Birmingham, writes for the BBC:

Twitter has released its most retweeted and “liked” tweets of 2017.

US President Donald Trump, whose posts on the site have become a key part of his communication strategy, hasn’t even made the top 10 most retweeted or liked tweets this year.

Former President Barack Obama beat his successor with three of the most shared tweets of 2017.

The current occupant of the White House was, however, the most tweeted-about world leader though.

The social media platform’s most shared tweet of the year was from a 17-year-old Nevada resident who asked US fast food chain Wendy’s how many retweets he would need to get a year’s worth of free chicken nuggets.

Wendy’s told Carter Wilkerson he would need to get 18 million.

To date, his tweet has been shared over three million times.

The most-liked tweet of the year was from Mr Obama.

On the day of clashes at a white supremacist protest in Virginia, Mr Obama posted a photo of himself talking to multi-racial children through a window.

Not only was this the most-liked tweet of the year, it was also the second most retweeted post worldwide.

In contrast, on the same day – 12 August – President Trump said that “many sides” were at fault for the “hatred, bigotry and violence” that occurred in Charlottesville.

Mr Obama appeared twice more in the top-10 most shared tweets of the year.

A tweet in which the former President appealed to Americans to “believe in [their] ability to create change” was the fifth most-shared globally. It was sent out a week before the end of the Obama Administration.

Ariana Grande’s tweet after the Manchester Arena bombing in May was the fourth most retweeted globally.

It was also the second most-liked post on the social media platform.