Politics is no longer limited to parliaments. Social media services like Twitter are playing an increasingly important role for many world leaders. But some manage to gain significantly more followers than others .
Many heads of state and their governments use the social network to promote themselves and their policies. As our graphic shows, US President Trump has the most followers, divided between his two accounts @realdonaldtrump and @POTUS. While the first is the president's personal Twitter account, @POTUS is passed from president to president.
Only Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (75.9 million followers) comes close to Trump's Twitter prowess. Similar to Trump, he uses two accounts to further improve his Twitter game. With the exception of the Pope, who comes fourth, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who comes tenth, the rest of the top 10 is made up of Muslim leaders.
But there are also heads of state for whom the use of Twitter seems less important. Chancellor Angela Merkel rarely tweets and only has around 50,000 followers. She leaves the tweet to government spokesman Steffen Seibert (@RegSpeech), who has around 0.9 million followers.
Politics is no longer confined to parliaments. Social media services like Twitter play an increasingly important role for many world leaders. But some manage to attract significantly more followers than others .
Many heads of state, as well as their governments, use the social network to promote themselves and their policies. As our chart shows, US President Trump has the most followers, split between his two accounts @realdonaldtrump and @POTUS. While the first is the president's private Twitter account, @POTUS is passed along from president to president.
Only Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (75.9 million followers) comes close to Trump's Twitter prowess. Similar to Trump, he uses two accounts to further up his Twitter game. Except for the Pope, who comes in fourth, and the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who comes in 10th, the remainder of the top 10 consists of Muslim leaders.
There are also heads of state, however, to whom the use of Twitter seems less important. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for instance, tweets seldomly and only has around 50,000 followers. She leaves tweeting to government spokesman Steffen Seibert (@RegLehrer), who after all has around 0.9 million followers.
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