The world’s richest person Elon Musk in a tweet Friday night congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “being the most followed world leader!”
What Happened: Musk was likely referring to Modi crossing the much-coveted 100-million-follower mark on X (formerly Twitter), becoming only the second politician to achieve the milestone after Barack Obama.
Obama at this time has over 131 million followers on the Musk-owned social media platform but is no longer an active world leader.
The sitting U.S. President Joe Biden Biden has just 38.2 million followers on X. Meanwhile, his 2024 presidential election opponent Donald Trump has 87.7 million.
Musk — who runs a host of companies besides X including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company — is himself the most popular person on his platform, with nearly 190 million followers.
Modi is currently the seventh most followed account on X, with Christiano Ronaldo, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Katy Perry also ahead of him on the list. Virat Kohli is the second most followed person from India in X, with over 64 million followers.
Modi is also the most-followed world ledaer on Instagram, with over 91 million followers. Meanwhile, Kohli has over 270 million followers on Meta’s rich-media-centric platform, making him the most-followed person in Asia.
Why It Matters: Musk first began following Modi on X in April last year, amid long back-and-forth with the Indian government over Tesla’s potential entry into the country.
The billionaire was slated to visit India in April but postponed the visit owing to “heavy Tesla obligations,” days later showing up in China for a visit.
Musk’s team was reported to have ceased contact with the Indian government over the Tesla earlier this month.
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