Obama speaks out on hate. Why Twitter followers have so much love for his tweet

Words and a photo from former President Barack Obama were well received on Twitter – so well in fact, it is now the social platform’s most-liked tweet of all time.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion,” Obama tweeted Saturday. Donald Trump’s predecessor spoke out in a series of tweets after a white nationalist rally was met with opposition, sparking violence that led to several injuries and a woman’s death when a man drove his car into a crowd of protesters.

The quote is from “Long Walk to Freedom,” the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Along with the words, Obama is seen in a photo with children of different races.

The main tweet in Obama’s string had nearly 2.9 million likes as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, which gave it the most likes in Twitter history. Ariana Grande’s response to the deadly bombing outside her show in Manchester, England, had more likes at over 2.7 million early Tuesday, but Obama’s tweet surpassed the pop star at some point in the evening.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Obama speaks out on hate. Why Twitter followers have so much love for his tweet."