It’s true. Social media giant Twitter has revealed its top-trending people and topics of the year – and the most retweeted post came from US teenager Carter Wilkerson, who begged people to retweet him so that he could get a year’s worth of free chicken nuggets from fast food chain Wendy’s.
The post was then retweeted 3.6 million times – well short of the 18 million target set by Wendy’s – but they still gave him the nuggets.
Meanwhile former US President Barack Obama had the most popular Tweet with nearly 4.6 million likes for the Nelson Mandela quote: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion…”
The tweet was also the second most retweeted item with 1.7 million shares. In total, Obama took out three of the top spots on the list.
A year marked by tragedy
There was a serious note to the list. Five of the top tweets marked tragic events such as the flooding in Houston, Texas, and the terrorist attack on a concert in Manchester, England.
Interestingly, current president Donald Trump didn’t even make the top 10 despite his prolific Tweeting – though he was the most tweeted about elected world leader (no surprise there).
‘The Don’ also featured heavily in the most used hashtags – mostly for reasons he wouldn’t like.
The top tag was #Resist, followed by #MAGA (Trump’s slogan Make America Great Again), #ImpeachTrump, #TrumpTrain, #WomensMarch and #NotMyPresident.
A sign of the times?
