Barack Obama breaks Twitter record for most popular tweet

A Barack Obama tweet quoting Nelson Mandela's plea for love and tolerance has broken a Twitter record for most likes, days after a woman was killed while protesting a far-right rally.

The former president has kept his Twitter activity to a minimum since leaving office in January, with most of his comments since then focus on his family, charity work or national holidays and awareness campaigns.

However, on Sunday, Obama used the platform to share Mandela's famous adage, taken from his 1994 memoir Long Walk To Freedom.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion," the quote reads. "People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

The first part of the three-tweet chain has now been liked more than three million times, making it the most-liked tweet in Twitter's 11-year history.

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