Politics tab on Facebook’s Trending widget is turned off during debate
Sep 26, 2016, 6:55 PM
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton shakes hands with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The biggest night in politics is here. The biggest.
Some were estimating that the viewership of the first presidential debate would rival the Super Bowl and be north of 100 million people.
The debate is underway and, well, Facebook might not be so sure. There is no sign of it under the Trending widget. In fact, the “Politics” tab isn’t highlighted at all to be clicked on.
That’s hard to believe — and quite surprising — the debate wouldn’t be recognized as something people are talking about on the biggest social media site.
(Screenshot)
On Twitter, four of the top ten topics were debate-related within the first 15 minutes.
Candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are close in the polls as the debate kicks off the final, six-week sprint of the general election. The two candidates are slated to square off for two more debates next month, while their running mates, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, are set to meet next week.
As for the actual debate, Clinton and Trump are living up to as advertised and continue not answering questions and taking jabs at each other whenever possible.
We’ll keep watching the debate and an eye on Facebook.
