PM Modi is third most followed world leader on Twitter, US President Trump leads

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the third most followed world leader on the social networking site-Twitter after US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis, a study showed on Tuesday.

“Indian Prime Minister @NarendraModi takes the third and fourth spots, with 42 million followers on his personal account,” Twiplomacy, a study by communications firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) said.

As per the study, Modi’s institutional account @PMOIndia occupied fourth spot with over 26 million followers and outranked official Twitter account of the US President, @POTUS ranked fifth and @WhiteHouse ranked sixth, with over 23 million and 17 million followers respectively.

US President Donald Trump is by far the most followed world leader on Twitter, with the Pope trailing him by some 4.5 million followers.

While Trump has 52 million followers on his @realDonaldTrump account, Francis has 47 million followers, the report said.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj is the most followed woman leader in the world and occupies seventh spot in overall ranking with over 11 million followers, the study said, adding Swaraj is also the most followed foreign minister.

Over the past 12 months, Trump has had nearly 264.5 million interactions with his followers, more than five times as many as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with 52 million interactions, and 12 times as many as Pope Francis, with 22 million interactions,the study said.

As of May 18, 2018, heads of state and government and foreign ministers of 187 countries had a presence on Twitter, representing 97 percent of all 193 UN member states, according to Twiplomacy. 

“The governments of only six countries, namely Laos, Mauritania, Nicaragua, North Korea, Swaziland and Turkmenistan do not have an official presence on the platform. Even the Chinese government’s State Council Information Office maintains a presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube,” the study added.

(With inputs from agencies)