Twitter soars, Facebook breaks in first leader debate

More than 184,000 tweets sent in 90 minutes

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16 April 2010 11:05 GMT / By Duncan Geere

During the course of 15 April's debate between the leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative parties, the first of its kind in Britain, more than 184,000 tweets were sent. That's almost 30 per second, among 36,483 different tweeters - throwing the 11,000 tweets sent during the Chancellors' debate out of the window.

Facebook was even busier - with 46,000 people joining its Democracy UK page. Unfortunately, however, the site's "Rate the Debate" app - which asked users to press buttons depending on whether they liked or disliked what each leader was saying - broke under the strain, and was almost impossible to access during the event.

Elsewhere on the web, text answers service 6336 compiled its list of "alternative" debate stats, including the fact that David Cameron made a "puppy-dog" face 35 times, and that Clegg licked his lips 7 times. If you missed the debate, there's a full PDF transcription on the web, too, thanks to the BBC, or you can watch it again on the ITV website.

If you watched it, who do you think won - Clegg, Brown or Cameron?

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