Twitter conversations on abortion, economy rise after Clinton vs. Trump debate

While the question of who won Wednesday'sU.S. presidential debate might be a hotly contested one, there is one arena in which Republican candidate Donald Trump is the undisputed winner:Twitter.

At any given time, Trump, an avid Twitter user himself, gets 500 to 600 more mentions than his rival,Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, according toJamesRubec, a content strategist at thesocial mediaanalyticsfirmCision.Clinton receives one-third fewer mentions on Twitter than Trump.

However, that does not necessarily mean Trumphas more support. Fiftyper cent ofTwitter conversations about Trump involveattacks against him, Rubec said.

(Rubeciscareful to point out that whenit comes toanalyzingTwitter data, there are significant demographic limitations. For example, 67 per cent of Twitter users are white.)

Shifting conversation

Rubec has looked at some long-term trends in Twitter conversations over the course of the U.S. election campaign. For example,thecontroversy over Clinton's privateemailserver wasthe leading scandal thatdominated election chatter on Twitterover the past six months, according to his data.

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But inthe past seven days, tweetsaboutthe sexual assault allegations againstTrumphavedrowned out thoseabout theemailcontroversyand the Clinton revelations contained in the recentWikiLeaksreleases.

Rubec also delved into some Twitter data from Wednesday night's debate in Las Vegas. Here's what he found:

• On debate night, 4,500 tweets made mention ofTrump being "unfit" to be presidentcompared to 360 describingClintonas "unfit."
• Among Twitter users who had tweeted favourablyaboutTrump before the debate,4,137 said he had lost their vote after the debate. In comparison,Clinton lost 558 users who had earlier expressed their support.

Rubec also discovered shifts in the election-related topics being tweeted about. Before the debate, half of the tweets that mentioned Clinton were about heremailscandal orthe WikiLeaks revelations.

But during and afterthe debate, interest in those controversiesshrank significantly. Only around 20 per cent oftweets mentioning Clinton touched onthose subjects after the debate.

Trump'ssexual assault scandal alsogarnered less interest after the debate,with mentions of it fallingfrom 11 per cent to one per cent among those tweeting about Trump.

Both Trump and Clintontook strong stands on abortion during the debate, and that seems to have influenced the conversation online.

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While abortion barely registered in tweets mentioning Trump before the debate, it shot up to 13 per cent during the debate and was the most-talked about topic after (with 21 per cent of Trump tweets referencing it).

In Clinton-related tweets,mentions of abortionwent from one per centbefore the debate to 11 per cent aftera 1,000 per cent increase.

"Ithadn't been spoken about in the electionfor months and months," said Rubec. "It really was a resurgent topic."

Other topics that waxed or wanedduring the debate include:

• The economy, which went from 19per cent to 27 per cent in Clinton tweets and from 20 per cent to 13 per cent in Trump tweets.
• Allegations of infidelity against former U.S. president Bill Clinton, mentions of which increased from four per cent to 17 per cent among Trump tweets and from six to two per cent in Hillary Clinton tweets.
• Immigration became a hotter topic in tweets mentioning Clinton, rising from three per cent to 11 per cent, but garnered less interest among those tweeting about Trump, falling from five per cent to three per cent.