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Here Are Twitter's Most 'Followed' World Leaders

Here Are Twitter's Most 'Followed' World Leaders
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Former Lifestyle editor, HuffPost India

Indian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and prime-minister elect Narendra Modi (R) talks with senior BJP leader and leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj during a meeting at the party headquarters in New Delhi on May 17, 2014. Hundreds of flag-waving supporters mobbed Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi as he arrived in New Delhi, smiling and flashing victory signs after his party's crushing poll victory. AFP PHOTO/RAVEENDRAN (Photo credit should read RAVEENDRAN/AFP/Getty Images)
RAVEENDRAN via Getty Images
Indian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and prime-minister elect Narendra Modi (R) talks with senior BJP leader and leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj during a meeting at the party headquarters in New Delhi on May 17, 2014. Hundreds of flag-waving supporters mobbed Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi as he arrived in New Delhi, smiling and flashing victory signs after his party's crushing poll victory. AFP PHOTO/RAVEENDRAN (Photo credit should read RAVEENDRAN/AFP/Getty Images)

It is no surprise that social media (Twitter in particular) has been embraced as one of the most effective communication tools for world leaders to reach out to the masses with 140-character messages and six-second soundbites.

Twiplomacy's most recent 2015 study has shown that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi finishes up as the 3rd most followed political leader on Twitter in the world after Barack Obama, and Pope Francis respectively. The PM's inaugural message from his Twitter account post his election in May last year said: “I am a firm believer in the power of technology and social media to communicate with people across the world.”

Interestingly, the study lists two Indians in their most popular leader's list: Sushma Swaraj is the world's most followed foreign minister on Twitter with 2,438,228 followers. The study also has interesting details — over 4,100 embassies and ambassadors are now on Twitter and 15 world leaders have seen their tweets retweeted over 20,000 times.

Here are the most followed world leaders.

US President Barack Obama
Barack Obama/Flickr
US President @BarackObama is the world's most followed leader on Twitter, according to the Twiplomacy Study 2015. He has a following of 56,933,515 people.
Pope Francis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pope Francis (@Pontifex) has 19,580,910 followers on his nine different language accounts.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
ASSOCIATED PRESS
According to the study, since his election in May 2014, the Indian Prime Minister @NarendraModi has skyrocketed into third place on this list of Twitter's most popular world leaders.
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj
Pool via Getty Images
The second Indian in this list, India’s @SushmaSwaraj is the most followed foreign minister with 2,438,228 followers.
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
MOHAMED EL-SHAHED via Getty Images
UAE Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan who has been on Twitter since 2009 is well behind Sushma Swaraj, with 1,608,831 followers, according to the study.
Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Turkish Foreign Affairs (@MevlutCavusoglu) has a following of 376,429 followers.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rwandan President Paul Kagame (@PaulKagame) has become Africa’s most followed president with 8,42,260 followers, says the study.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄźan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Turkish President is the fourth most followed world leader, after Narendra Modi (India's Prime Minister). Twitter's 2014 Transparency Report also showed that Turkey filed over five times more content removal requests than any other country in the second half of 2014.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Mexican President is one of the 10 most followed world leaders on Twitter, and the most followed Latin American leader with 3.89 million followers.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Colombian President joined Twitter in 2009. Today his Twitter account boasts a following of over 3.6 million.
Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
STAN HONDA via Getty Images
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) is the the third most followed political leader in Latin America.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
EVARISTO SA via Getty Images
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr) has 3.45 million followers on Twitter.
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro follows 73 people, but has a following of 2.34 million people.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta
World Economic Forum/Flickr
According to the story, since his appointment as Kenya's President, the Kenyan government has really taken to the 'digital age. Uhuru Kenyatta, according to the study, has 781,929 followers.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron
WPA Pool via Getty Images
The study shows that The UK Prime Minister David Cameron (@Number10gov) is the most followed EU leader with over 3 million followers.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi joined in 2009, however has is only half as popular as the UK Prime Minister with over 1.7 million followers.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.