Facebook chatter down slightly in final debate

Nearly 18 million Facebook users took part in the conversation about Wednesday night’s presidential debate, the social media company said — the lowest total of any of the presidential debates of 2016.

{mosads}In total, 17.8 million users produced 79.9 million likes, comments, shares and posts about the Wednesday debate on Facebook.

In comparison, last week’s debate generated a conversation that included 19.8 million people and produced more than 92.4 million posts, likes, comments and shares on Facebook. It also smashed records on Twitter.

The first debate in late September drew 18.6 million people, who produced a total of 73.8 million likes, comments, shares and posts, Facebook said.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accounted for 56 percent of the conversation, while Democrat Hillary Clinton accounted for 44 percent. That marks a shift from the second debate, when Trump was the subject of 76 percent of the chatter on Facebook.

He still, however, generated the most-discussed moments on the platform.

His scuffle with moderator Chris Wallace over statements he’d made about Syria was the most-talked-about moment of the debate, according to Facebook. It was followed by several other exchanges involving or originating with Trump. That included his assertion that his reality show “The Apprentice” should have won an Emmy.

Trump and Clinton’s face-off Wednesday night was the last before voters go the polls Nov. 8.