Twitter reveals its most popular hashtags of 2015

This year’s most talked about subject on Twitter was the Paris attacks, the social media site has revealed.

Tweeters used the hashtag #JeSuisParis to show their solidarity with Parisians after last month’s terror attacks as well as the attacks in January at the headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Behind the French hashtags, the second most common hashtag was #BlackLivesMatter - which people used to express their anger over a string of shootings involving the police and black citizens in Ferguson, Charleston and Balitmore. The phrase was used more than nine million times in the year.

Another major issue of the year was same-sex marriages being legalised in Ireland and the US, resulting in the celebration using #MarriageEquality, which came third on Twitter’s list.

Along with the equality hashtag, many Irish nationals living abroad went home to vote and used #HomeToVote. While in America, after the US Supreme Court confirmed the legalisation on June 26, #LoveWins began trending.

Fleeing refugees from the Middle East making their way to Europe saw #RefugeesWelcome being widely used.

People also took to Twitter to defend Texan schoolboy Ahmed Mohammed, who was arrested after a ticking homemade alarm clock inside his bag was mistaken for a bomb.

Even Barack Obama became involved, and more than 370,000 tweets were posted with the hashtag, many of which included photos of teens in handcuffs. The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed ranked fifth overall in the year.

Sixth on Twitter’s list was national elections in the UK, Canada and India. Timelines were dominated with political tweets and hashtags using #Election2015.

Next was the women’s football world cup #FifaWWC, where tweets on the subject were viewed 9 billion times, making the tournament one of the greatest sporting events of the year.

Nasa’s Pluto fly-by in July prompted users to tweet #PlutoFlyby as the spacecraft came within 7750 miles of Pluto’s surface and captured close up images, which generated more than 1 million tweets in July.

That dress came in ninth; the internet divided people over whether it was black and blue or white and gold, and people used #TheDress to discuss the “optical illusion” back in Febuary which ended in more than 4.4 million tweets.

Last on the list was Caitlyn Jenner’s gender transition. She transitioned from Olympic decathlon winner Bruce Jenner and went on to win a Guinness World Record for reaching 1 million followers in 4 hours and three minutes in June after her Vanity Fair magazine cover.

Lewis Wiltshire, Twitter’s director of media partnerships, said: “2015 has been another phenomenal year on Twitter.”

“Across the world people have come together to celebrate, support one another, to show solidarity and of course to laugh.”

As well as the top tweets, Twitter has revealed the most-followed users, which are mainly dominated by American pop-stars with Katy Perry top. She boats 78.3m followers, while Justin Bieber has 70.5m and 66.7m people follower Taylor Swift.

Next in line is Barack Obama with 66.5m and Rihanna, who has 53.1m followers.

Twitter has 320 million global users, with around 15 million of them in the UK. Facebook’s audience is five times larger than Twitters, and a similar list of what people have talked about most on Facebook this year is expected to be released soon.