Johannesburg - Can you beat Ellen and bring down Twitter?
Hundreds of Twitter users across the world are trying too. They are attempting to beat the record Ellen DeGeneres set at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
The talk show host crashed Twitter on Monday when a selfie she tweeted was retweeted more than 2 million times.
According to Twitter, its services were disrupted for about 20 minutes.
Since then, everyone from groups of friends to potato chip companies have tried to break the record by uploading their pictures and asking people to retweet them.
In the record-breaking selfie, Oscar host DeGeneres was clad in a white tux and surrounded by Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.
Kevin Spacey was also part of the photo after he “photobombed” his peers but he still tried his hand at beating DeGeneres.
Using the trending '#beatellen' hashtag, Spacey tweeted: “Let's beat @TheEllenShow selfie with @jimmykimmel #photobomb”
Spacey’s selfie with late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel got a little less than 23 000 retweets, which didn't even put a dent in DeGeneres’s record.
DeGeneres also tweeted another selfie with actor and singer Liza Minnelli.
The Oscar host’s selfie beat the record previously held by Barack Obama, who tweeted a photo of him and Michelle hugging. “The Four More Years” shot after his 2012 re-election was retweeted more than 780 000 times. - The Star