SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- Twitter has revealed that a message acknowledging the death of 'Glee' television star Cory Monteith was the most echoed tweet on the globally popular messaging platform in 2013.

The message posted on Twitter about Monteith's fatal drug overdose by co-star Lea Michele was re-tweeted more than 408,000 times from 133 countries, making it the "Golden Tweet" of this year, according to the San Francisco-based Internet company.

"Among the millions of affecting Tweets this year, there is something we call The Golden Tweet," Twitter spokesman Gabriel Stricker said in a blog post.

"It's the most-retweeted Tweet of the year -- the one that resonated most with millions of Twitter users around the world. In 2013, Lea Michele鈥檚 first public acknowledgement of the death of her Glee co-star and partner Cory Monteith is that Tweet."

 

A Twitter message announcing the death of "The Fast and The Furious" film celebrity Paul Walker in a car crash was second, having been re-tweeted 400,367 times, according to Stricker.

The third most re-tweeted message was one fired off by One Direction band member Niall Horan, rejoicing in having just turned 20 years old.