Barack Obama’s response to violence in Charlottesville has now become the most “liked” tweet in the history of Twitter.

Following a white nationalist protest that led to three deaths, the former president tweeted a quote from Nelson Mandela's 1994 autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom” that said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour 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 quote was divided into three separate tweets. The first, which so far has received 2.9 million “likes”, was accompanied by an image of young children looking down at Mr Obama through a window.

Photographer Pete Souza took the photo in 2011 at a daycare facility next to Mr Obama’s daughter Sasha's school in Bethesda, Maryland.

Previously, the most-liked post on Twitter – with 2.7 million likes – was Ariana Grande’s tweet following the bombing at the Manchester, England arena, where she was performing in May.