A winner in the Republican debate: Facebook

In the first Republican debate of the 2016 presidential election, Facebook came out on top. The social media giant partnered with Fox News to host Aug 6's debate, and users weren't shy about sharing their thoughts. According to Facebook data, 7.5 million users throughout the US made 20 million interactions in the form of posts, shares, likes and comments about the debate. That's more chatter than during the State of the Union address earlier in 2015 (5.6 million people made 14 million interactions) and the 24 hours around Donald Trump's campaign announcement in June (3.4 million people made 6.4 million interactions).

More than 40,000 people responded via Facebook to Fox News' call for candidate questions, and analysts said the debate reinforced the social network's growth and importance in the 2016 election. "I think you're seeing that Facebook is reasserting itself as the place where dialogue happens, and that also includes politics and entertainment," said Jason Cieslak, Pacific Rim president at global branding firm Siegel+Gale. "It speaks to the maturation of the company that they chose to do something that was extraordinarily mainstream."