President Trump most followed leader on Twitter, PM Modi third

US President Donald Trump is now the most followed world leader on Twitter. According to Switzerland-based Twiplomacy, which tracks the use of Twitter, Trump now has almost 40 lakh followers and has overtaken Pope Francis by more than two lakh followers to emerge on top of the list.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at number three with 34,878,753 followers, according to Twiplomacy which tracks about 890 accounts of leaders like heads of state and government.

The pope's followers in all languages are slightly fewer.

Twitplomacy founder Matthias Luefkens, head of the digital with Burson Marsteller EMEA, acknowledged that many followers could be dormant accounts or "bots." The list also doesn't count ex-leaders like Barack Obama, who has 95 million-plus followers.

Trump has frequently announced government policy or made controversial statements on Twitter.

Luefkens said today that Trump's tweets get many "interactions" and he expects the US leader might trumpet the achievement: "He does like his crowd size."