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Facebook is Talking More About Ethics Than Economy

Social media site releases data on most discussed issues on Election Day

(Photo courtesy of Facebook)
(Photo courtesy of Facebook)

While most polls show that voters’ top concerns are the economy and national security, the top policy issue discussed on Facebook on Election Day was government ethics, according to data released by the social media site.

The second was religion, third was racial issues, and fourth and fifth were crime and criminal justice, and the economy, respectively.

“This data demonstrates that, as they cast their ballots, voters are very much considering the issues that have been dominating the conversation on Facebook throughout this election cycle,” Robert D’Onofrio, Facebook’s director of data communications, said.

“The list correlates with the underlying reasons people are expressing for supporting their particular presidential candidate,” he added.

This contrasts with many political polls, which found that while Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State have been an ongoing point of debate, that issue wasn’t as important to voters.

Only 5 percent of voters considered ethics, moral or religious decline the most important issue to them in this election, aside from the economy, according to a Gallup poll conducted Sept. 7 to 11.

The top issue then was dissatisfaction with government, and then election reform and race relations.

From a Pew Research Center poll released on July 7, ethics did not even make it on the top 14 most important issue. Economy, terrorism and foreign policy were in the top slots.

Facebook said that as of 7 p.m. on Tuesday, 7.5 million users said that they had voted.

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