PM Modi retains ‘most followed Indian’ title on Twitter

In the one year since he became the most followed Indian on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's social media popularity rose to a new level in 2017 as he retained the title of the 'most followed Indian' on Twitter. He will be closing 2017 with over 3.75 crore followers.

As per a Twitter report capturing trends in 2017, Modi saw his follower base increasing by 52 per cent to 37.5 million (as of December 4), from 24.6 million in 2016.

This is the second year in a row that PM Modi has emerged as the most followed Indian on social media site Twitter.

In 2016, Modi pipped Amitabh Bachchan to become the most followed Indian on the micro-blogging site.

Modi is also the second most followed politician in the world, right after former US President Barack Obama (@barackobama). Modi has used Twitter for campaigns like #MakeInIndia, #SwachBharat, #MannKiBaat and #SelfieWithDaughter to reach and connect with citizens.

Interetingly, no other political personality apart from PM Modi featured in the list of most followed Indians on Twitter in 2017.

However, Kohli saw his followers grow by 61 per cent during the same period although on a smaller base.

The cricketer is ending the year with 20.8 million followers, as against 12.9 million last year.

Cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar also saw a growth of 56 per cent in his follower base on Twitter this year.

This is the first time ever, Kohli and Tendulkar made it to the list of top 10 most followed Indian accounts, Twitter said.

The list was dominated by Bollywood actors with Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan.

Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan saw their fan base on Twitter grow at 40 per cent each. However, Shah Rukh -- with 30.9 million followers -- was ahead of Salman who had 28.5 million followers.

The data showed that the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 Final clash between India and Pakistan was the most tweeted about ODI ever with 1.8 million tweets.

India's biggest tax reform, GST, also made it to the list of top trending hastags due to the magnitude of conversations it generated on the platform, Twitter said.

Besides, the Supreme Court decision on the controversial Triple Talaq issue made '#TripleTalaq' trend on Twitter on August 22, with more than 350,000 tweets.

One of the most controversial subjects under news and politics to take Twitter by storm operated under the hashtag 'Diwali'. After the ban of crackers in the national capital region of India #Diwali started trending with debates galore.

"For the first time, Diwali emoji on Twitter was available in 7 different regional languages, enabling Indians to express themselves in their own language," Twitter said.

OneIndia News