Benzinga | Dec 10, 2021 11:56AM EST

BTS Tweet Condemning Anti-Asian Violence Named Top Retweeted Message Of 2021

A statement from the K-pop group BTS condemning violence against Asians was cited by Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) as the most retweeted posting of 2021.

What Happened: The tweet was posted to the group's @BTS_twt account on March 29 and carried the hashtags #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate. The tweet featured screen shots of Korean- and English-language statements attributed to BTS that acknowledged being on the receiving end of racist comments.

But, the statement added, "our own experiences are inconsequential compared to the events that have occurred over the past few weeks," a reference to anti-Asian violence occurring in North America earlier in the year.

"We stand against racial discrimination," the message declared. "We condemn violence. You, and I and we have the right to be respected. We will stand together."

The BTS tweet was shared 1.2 million times. BTS has 42.1 million Twitter followers.

What Else Happened: Twitter also announced the most liked Tweet of 2020 was President Joe Biden's message, "It's a new day in America," which was posted to his account on his Jan. 20 inauguration day. It received 4 million likes.

A selfie with a kissing face emoji posted by BTS member Jungkook was the second-most liked tweet, with 3.2 million affirmations.

Twitter added that the crying face and the face with tears of joy emoji were, respectively, the first and second most Tweeted emojis, respectively, while the eyes emoji entered the top 10 emoji list for the first time, growing in popularity by 7% since 2020.

Photo: Dispatch / Wikimedia Commons