Twitter has released its annual review of the top trends on Twitter for the year, in South Africa and around the world.
The 2015 “Year on Twitter” round-up reveals that two of the top trending hashtags were #FeesMustFall and #NationalShutdown, marking the student protests around the country over university tuition fees.
“The state-of-the-nation address — #SONA2015 — was highly anticipated by many South Africans, while the Democratic Alliance’s attempt at hosting a Twitter Townhall made the top five for wrong reasons as it was overtaken by South Africans who asked thousands of questions, the majority which were unrelated to the purpose of the Townhall,” Twitter said in a statement.
The top five news-related hashtags of 2015 were:
- #FeesMustFall
- #SONA2015
- #NationalShutdown
- #AskMmusi
- #Loadshedding
In sports, the Rugby World Cup was the most used hashtag on Twitter in South Africa.
“#RWC2015 took top spot as South Africa made it to the semi-finals, and due to South Africa’s performance at this year’s Cricket World Cup, #ProteaFire also trended,” Twitter said.
“A country with a strong football following, it was no surprise that #MUFC and #AbsaPrem made the top five as both of these were used by fans before, during and after matches.”
The top five sports-related hashtags were:
- #RWC2015
- #ProteaFire
- #MUFC
- #AbsaPrem
- #SuperRugby
In television, reality programming dominated, with Big Brother Mzansi at the top of the list:
- #BBMzansi
- #IdolsSA
- #SkeemSaam
- #DateMyFamily
- #Uzalo
Internationally, the most re-tweeted tweet of the year went to Harry Styles of boy band One Direction, who expressed gratitude toward the band’s fans after member Zayn Malik announced he was parting ways with the group. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media
