Obama breaks a record with tweet about Charlottesville, quoting Mandela

Former US President Barack Obama. Photo / AP file

Former US President Barack Obama has broken the record with the most-liked tweet in Twitter's history.

The milestone came with his post quoting former South African President Nelson Mandela in response to the deadly violence in Charlottesville over the weekend.

Obama's August 12 tweet was posted after a rally of white nationalists and neo- Nazis resulted in the death of a protester.

The post set the record with more than 2.73 million likes today, according to Twitter.

Obama quoted Mandela, the South African political and anti-apartheid resistance leader, in a series of three tweets.

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion.

"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 the Obama's August 12 tweets surpassed the previous record-holder for most-liked Twitter post, which was Ariana Grande's message following the terrorist attack in Manchester in May.

That has 2.7 million likes.

The third most-liked tweet of all time currently is Ellen DeGeneres' Oscars selfie from the 2014 Academy Awards, with 2.4 million likes.

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love..."

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

"...For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson Mandela

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

- Reuters, AAP