The top social media stories of the year

I think we can all agree that 2018 has been, to put it mildly, a hectic year.

With the threat of a no-deal Brexit, the World Cup in Russia, a royal wedding or two and America’s midterm election,s there was plenty to discuss, celebrate and commiserate. Here were some of the biggest moments for The Independent‘s social team, and the online world, this year.

The death of the beloved chef Anthony Bourdain was, according to content intelligence company Chartbeat, the most engaged-with story this year. His sudden passing, the circumstances surrounding his final days and the essential conversations around mental health and depression were inescapable on social media.

Other massive stories that sparked conversation across social media platforms included the shadowy op-ed from an anonymous White House staffer titled “I am part of the resistance”, the bombshell New York Times investigation into Donald Trump’s taxes, and of course CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials being revoked. You can probably spot the theme.

In 2017, Uma Thurman was asked on the red carpet for her thoughts on the Harvey Weinstein scandal. She, with great poise, responded that she was waiting to feel less angry before she talking about it. In 2018, she was ready – and opened up about the sexual assault and violence she has faced at the hands of men in Hollywood. Her piece speaking candidly about her experiences became a gargantuan topic on every platform imaginable and once again showed that the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have absolutely not gone away.

It would be impossible to discuss the peaks and troughs of social media without bringing up Brexit. This year The Independent launched a Final Say campaign calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal and we marched alongside more than 700,000 People’s Vote supporters for this cause and handed in over one million signatures to Downing Street. We followed the resignations from Theresa May’s cabinet over the deal and the tsunami of controversy that can emerge from a phrase muttered in annoyance. (What do you think Jeremy said?)

But what about the stats? Data is beautiful after all. Instagram continued to shine in 2018 with a jaw-dropping 14 billion red hearts sent in comments, and millions of posts tagged with #MeToo, #Timesup and #MarchForOurlives. Tokyo Disneyland was named the happiest place in the world, thanks to photos in the location featuring the highest concentration of smiley faces in captions.

But let’s finish on some quick hitters courtesy of Twitter. The 280-character blogging site went from strength to strength in 2018, becoming a focal point for political resignations, world-changing announcements and the customary witty banter. The most quote tweeted tweet of the year featured a GIF of Barack Obama and the request: “Quote this with your unpopular opinion”:

Elsewhere, this was the most retweeted tweet, by a Spanish YouTuber with 12.4 million followers:

K-pop sensation BTS were the most tweeted-about account this year – a remarkable but rather unsurprising achievement. They also happened to have the most liked tweet of 2018 with 1.8 million.

The top fandom community over on Instagram also happened to be the BTS Army, so if you take nothing else away from this little analysis know this: 2018 was without a doubt the year of BTS.

Yours,

Josh Withey

Social media editor