Twitter Launches #Debates Emoji for Presidential Debates

Social media site Twitter announced Thursday a joint initiative with the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) to encourage discussion and engagement around the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debates.

Users Tweeting with either official debate hashtag — #debates or #debates2016 — will see a new Twitter emoji icon appear in their Tweets.

Twitter will also provide for each moderator an analysis of trends in election-related discussion on Twitter and will curate questions from Twitter users related to stated debate topics for inclusion at the moderators’ discretion.

Debate schedule:

• Monday, September 26th, First Presidential Debate
• Tuesday, October 4th, Vice Presidential Debate
• Sunday, October 9th, Second Presidential Debate
• Wednesday, October 19th, Third Presidential Debate

“Twitter is the most direct way to engage with the candidates and issues of this election and to participate in the live, public conversation around its key events,” said Adam Sharp, Twitter’s head of News, Government and Elections.

“We are proud to join the CPD in the next chapter of their decades-long legacy of providing a rich forum for discussing candidate’s views ahead of the 2016 presidential election.”

Additionally, Twitter will live stream all four presidential and vice presidential debates through an exclusive partnership with Bloomberg Media. The stream will be available globally at debates.twitter.com and in Twitter Moments.

In total, Tweets sent during both the first Democratic and Republican primary debates in 2016 received over one billion impressions, and more than half of all Tweets sent about the 2016 election are from people 25 years old or younger.

There were ten million Tweets sent during the first U.S. Presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle, which was the most-watched U.S. Presidential debate in history.