Barack Obama's anti-racism tweet after Charlottesville violence most liked in history

Former US President Barack Obama's anti-racism tweet following the Charlottesville violence that took place on August 12 has become the most liked tweet ever with over 2.9 million likes.

Obama's tweet left behind Ariana Grande's tweet following the suicide bombing during her Manchester concert on May 22 which garnered 2.7 million likes.

Obama had quoted South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela after the racist clashes took place at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion," Obama tweeted along with a picture of himself looking up to a window of children of different ethnicities and races.

"This Tweet from @BarackObama just became the most Liked Tweet ever. It set the record at approximately 10:07 EST," news agency PTI quoted a Silicon Valley-based social media company as saying.

Apart from 2.9 million likes, the tweet has been retweeted over 1.2 million times and has received over 47 thousand comments.  
"It is also currently the 5th most Retweeted Tweet ever," the company statement said.

The record of most retweeted tweet is held by Carter Wilkerson who tweeted earlier this year, "Help me please, a man needs his nuggs".

On  Monday, Obama's tweet surpassed talk show host Ellen DeGeneres' 2014 Oscars selfie tweet, which stands at number 3 with 2.4 million likes.

Obama's tweet, which quotes a line from Mandela's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom", came after a 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 others were injured when a car rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Two police officers also died on  Saturday when their helicopter monitoring the rally crashed.