press release like. During the primary race for president in 2008, John Edwards was also on Twitter. During the 2008 United States general election, during one monitored period, Obama made 261 Tweets while his Republican competitor John McCain made only 26. During the 2016 US presidential election, the top three candidates (Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders) used Twitter to discuss their campaigns, gain followers and supporters, and talk amongst other candidates. These politicians would also talk negatively about each other and sling insults back and forth. Trump would refer to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" to further stir up their rivalries. Clinton famously rebutted with "Delete your account." during this presidential race. Clinton used Twitter to promote her presidential campaign but, unlike Obama, she did not follow back many of her new followers. On the state level, American politicians tend to use Twitter primarily for constituent and policy-related issues. The second most popular category of tweets is personal musings. In May 2011, 387 members of the United States Congress had Twitter accounts. British politicians on Twitter include Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May. In Australia, the Greens were initially more successful on Twitter than other political parties. The Australian Labor Party's politicians have used Twitter to attack their opposition, with some one creating a parody account featuring Tony Abbott. Kevin Rudd does not appear to be making his own tweets, rather someone else is likely to be doing it for him. Chilean politicians are using Twitter as an alternative method of communications as they find the mainstream press not giving them media coverage. Politicians in Greece and Japan also use Twitter to communicate with their constituents. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has used Twitter to help change his image and make himself more personable. Venezuela President Hugo Chavez was one of the most followed Venezuelan accounts on Twitter. Religious figures On December 12, 2012 Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet, which was re-tweeted by thousands of users almost immediately. Since this time, the account @Pontifex has amassed over 17.9 million followers (as of March 2019) and regularly engages with users via the hashtag #AskPontifex addressing religious matters and responding to questions. Several satellite accounts are used to transmit and translate the Pope's tweets into different languages. See also Barack Obama on social media Donald Trump on social media Twitter diplomacy Volfefe index, volatility index related to Twitter usage of U.S.