The top 10 most discussed topics on Facebook in 2015

It’s that time of year when all the big tech titans reveal key trends from the past year — and today it’s Facebook’s turn to declare the most-discussed topics on its social network in 2015.

Using data from January 1 to December 1, Facebook has revealed that the U.S. presidential election has been the number one hot-topic globally. The full top 10 are:

1. US Presidential election
2. Paris terrorist attacks (November)
3. Syrian civil war & refugee crisis
4. Nepal earthquakes
5. Greek debt crisis
6. Marriage equality
7. Fight against ISIS
8. Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks (January)
9. Baltimore protests
10. Charleston shooting & flag debate

Perhaps the most obvious observation to make from this list is how prominent a role Facebook plays in the sharing and discussing of news, particularly one-off short- or long-term events.

Compared to 2014, Facebook’s stats reveal a similar picture, with the soccer World Cup in Brazil coming out top, followed by the Ebola outbreak, and Brazilian elections:

1. World Cup
2. Ebola Virus Outbreak
3. Elections in Brazil
4. Robin Williams
5. Ice Bucket Challenge
6. Conflict in Gaza
7. Malaysia Airlines
8. Super Bowl
9. Michael Brown / Ferguson
10. Sochi Olympics

Given that Facebook has emerged as a pivotal tool for many media companies, Facebook has been building tools specifically for this. Indeed, earlier this year the company lifted the lid on Instant Articles, which effectively lets a select band of publishers pump fully optimized content directly into Facebook.

Meanwhile, here’s a visual revisit of all the top discussion points of 2015. 

Source :Venture Beat