Presidential Debate Gets 7.2 Million Tweets

Economy, taxes and foreign policy were three top topics

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/17/2012 11:24:59 AM

The number of tweets for the second presidential debate declined from the record 10.3 million tweets for the Oct. 3 Denver debate to around 7.2 million for the Oct. 16 Town Hall Debate, according to figures posted by Twitter on its blog by Adam Sharp, head of government, news and social innovation at the company.

The biggest topic during the debate was the economy, which accounted for 28% of the tweets sent during the 90 minute event. That was followed by taxes (17%), foreign policy (16%), energy and the environment (13%) and immigration (8%).

The largest amount of activity occurred following an audience question to Romney on immigration, which generated 109,560 tweets per minute. The second highest level occurred when Obama told Romney, "You're the last person to get tough on China," which sparked 108,619 tweets per minute tweets per minute. This was followed by Romney's response to tax rates question, which produced 107,386 tweets per minute.