Yesterday, Twitter revealed the hashtags and news stories that received the most airplay on the social network in 2015.
"It's a place to look back at the most retweeted tweets, the most popular trends (and emojis), and how 2015 unfolded across the world on Twitter," explained Twitter's Alexandra Valasek in a blog post.
The biggest Twitter moments across the world included:
#ParisAttacks and PrayForParis last month took over Twitter timelines after terrorist bombings that killed nearly 100 people. Just ten months prior, when terrorists attacked the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie was used the world over to show support for the victims.
#BlackLivesMatter began as a Twitter hashtag and has come to represent a social movement. The hashtag was tweeted nine million times this year.
#MarriageEquality exploded on the micro-blogging site after the US and Ireland both made same-sex marriage legal. #LoveWins celebrated the US Supreme Court's decision to legalise gay marriage in the US on June 26.
#RefugeesWelcome was used by human rights activists and other citizens around the world to let the thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa seek asylum in Europe.
#IStandWithAhmed was the hashtag used after Ahmed Mohammed, 14, was detained and handcuffed for bringing in a homemade digital clock to his Texas school. The authorities thought he may have been a terrorist and the clock a bomb. In less than six hours, the hashtag was used more than 370 000 times.
#PlutoFlyby was used as thousands of people turned to the social network to see the first pictures of Pluto as the Nasa New Horizons flew past it and took close-up photographs. It happened in July and generated more than a million tweets in a day.
#TheDress was used in more than four million tweets in February when a photograph of a dress divided the Internet. One group saw the dress as white and gold and the other as blue and black.
In South Africa, the two top news trending hashtags were #FeesMustFall and #NationalShutdown. These were followed by #SONA2015, the State of the Nation Address, and #AskMmusi, when the Democratic Alliance's Mmusi Maimane hosted a 'Twitter Townhall'. #Loadshedding made it into fifth position.
The top five sports hashtags on Twitter in South Africa this year were #RWC2015, #ProteaFire, #MUFC, #AbsaPrem and #SuperRugby.
New to Twitter
In May, US President Barack Obama joined Twitter and tweeted: "Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account." Obama received a record amount of followers in a short amount of time. The account now has over 5 million followers.
Obama's record was broken in June when Caitlyn Jenner joined the social network - in four hours of joining, she had over one million followers.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden joined Twitter in September and reached the one million follower mark in days. Many Twitter users were amused by his 'trolling' as the only account he is following is the official Twitter profile for the NSA.
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