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Facebook lists SA’s 5 most shared topics for 2016

Johannesburg - Facebook has listed its top most shared moments for 2016, with topics such as South Africa’s local government elections and President Jacob Zuma dominating the local list.

On Thursday, Facebook revealed its year in review lists. Its top moments for the year were measured by how frequently a topic was mentioned in Facebook posts made between January 1 and November 27, 2016.

Mentions were also analysed in an aggregated, anonymized way, and then ranked to create a snapshot of the year on Facebook, said the company.

In South Africa, the top 5 moments discussed on Facebook were as follows: 1. SA’s municipal elections 2016, 2. Olympics, 3. US elections, 4. President Jacob Zuma and 5. Fees Must Fall.

"I think from a South African point of view, it is very, very clear that given the extent of the local government elections that they would come up tops as the single most important story that people came to the platform to talk about,” Nunu Ntshingila, head of Africa for Facebook, told Fin24.

"I think it was followed by other stories that particularly wouldn't be a surprise that the olympics, that it was a global phenomenon,” said Ntshingila

The US elections, which became controversial amid fake news appearing on Facebook, also grabbed South Africa’s attention, said Ntshingila

"From a South African point of view, I think that South Africans also caught onto that story,” said Ntshingila.

According to third quarter data for 2016, Facebook in South Africa had total daily active users of 8.2m, with 7.8m of these on mobile.

Meanwhile, Facebook’s total monthly active users in South Africa is 14m.

Worldwide, Facebook’s most shared moments for 2016 were as follows:

  1. US Elections

  2. Brazilian Politics

  3. Pokemon Go

  4. Black Lives Matter

  5. Rodrigo Duterte & Philippine Presidential Election

  6. Olympics

  7. Brexit

  8. Super Bowl

  9. David Bowie

  10. Muhammed Ali

Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter:

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