PM Modi Becomes Most Followed World Leader on Social Media

On Friday, US President Barack Obama formally ends his term, and will no longer be the President of the United States of America. Funnily enough, once that change takes place, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will become the most followed leader of a country on Twitter. Obama holds this spot right now, with almost 81 million followers on the social network, well ahead of any global leader.

The next political figure on the list is PM Modi, with 26.5 million followers, ahead of the next American president, Donald Trump, who has 20.5 million followers. After them the PMO India account comes in with 15.5 million followers, and the POTUS account, with 13.6 million followers. The White House also has 13.4 million followers, but the next leader in the list are the Dalai Lama, with 13.1 million followers, and the Pope, with 12.5 million followers.

PM Modi has even more followers on Facebook, at 39.2 million, while his Instagram and YouTube followings have crossed 5.8 million and 5.9 million respectively.

Like both Obama and Trump, PM Modi is also known for the use of social media to campaign, and directly reach out to voters. Social networking platforms have also been used by various leaders in India, particularly from the ruling party, to reach out to the public for day to day activities.

It is worth pointing out though that the most followed people on social media are not world leaders but entertainers - Katy Perry has the top spot, with 95.3 million followers, and Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift come in second and third, at 91.2 million and 83.1 million respectively. The most followed organisation is YouTube, which has 66.1 million followers on Twitter, while Twitter itself has 58.6 million.

Another interesting note is the number of accounts these leaders follow - Donald Trump has the most curated list, following just 42 accounts. PM Modi follows 1,641 accounts, but Obama's Twitter handle follows a whopping 631,987 accounts.