Elon Musk surpasses Barack Obama to become most followed person on Twitter

Elon Musk on Thursday surpassed ex-Democrat US President Barack Obama to become the most followed person on Twitter. The owner and chief executive of the microblogging site now has the most followed account with approximately 133.05 million followers. Tesla CEO surpassed Barack Obama who currently has 133.04 million followers. Singer Justin Bieber is the third most-followed account on Twitter with 113.31 million followers. Other popular celebrities who are among the most followed include Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Donald J. Trump, and Lady Gaga.

Musk tweets 'several times a day'

Musk’s fan following has reportedly spiked in recent years owing to the fact that he tweets several times daily as compared to Obama who tweets a few times a week. His popularity also soared after he purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022. The Tesla boss executed the mass layoff at the company and cracked down on remote work ethic. He is now struggling to generate revenue by introducing the monthly subscription service of Twitter Blue, a decision that sparked massive discussion among the members of the public.

The service was started for free almost 14 years ago and since then, scores of politicians, journalists, businesses, activists, and public figures have had the blue checkmark. Musk's plan to make the Blue verification badge paid service also attracted criticism from popular celebrity figures. "I’ve been here for 15 years giving my (clock emoji) and witty thoughts all for bupkis," William Shatner tweeted. "Now you’re telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free?"

In February, Musk announced that he was making his Twitter account private to see if it improved his reach. "Made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you can see my private tweets more than my public ones," he tweeted. His change of settings enabled only his followers to be able to retweet his tweets while barring others from Twitter. Musk later removed the private setting from his Twitter account. His decision came as many Twitter users complained that their tweets were not seen by as many people as they used to since Musk acquired the platform.