Yesterday’s presidential debate in the US was a big deal, with enthusiasm, irony, outrage and sarcasm reaching epic proportions online. Twitter, the popular social network, says that the event prompted a new record for the company, with over 17 million tweets being sent out by those following live.
The social media platform says that overall questions and tweets were a record for any presidential debate, and that a large number of these were related to Donald Trump’s attitude towards women. In terms of actual policy, terrorism, foreign affairs, the economy, healthcare and guns were the most tweeted subjects. The debate also sparked its own hashtags, including #MuslimsReportStuff and #LockerRoomTalkIn5Words. This was the most RT"d tweet:
I"m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate
— Moustafa Bayoumi (@BayoumiMoustafa) October 10, 2016
Trump walked away at the end of the night with 16,000 new followers, while Clinton gained 25,000 new followers over the course of the debate.
The news comes just as Twitter has been struggling to gain new users and as the social network has been considering putting itself up for sale. Bids from big players like Disney, Verizon, Microsoft, and Salesforce were expected, but more recent reports indicate that bidders have now backed off, leaving the stagnant company in a cooling off period.
Perhaps the presidential debate shows once again that Twitter’s biggest asset, and its strength relies on covering live events in real-time.
Source: Twitter