Race issues lead Facebook conversation before debate

Issues related to race led the political discussion on Facebook heading into the first presidential debate, according to data released Monday morning by the company.

Racial issues were followed by homeland security and terrorism and government ethics as the most-discussed political topics on the social platform in the U.S. between Aug. 25 and Saturday. The economy and religion rounded out the top five most-discussed issues.

{mosads}The prominence of racial issues on the platform comes after a month in which police in two different cities shot and killed black men in high-profile cases. The Justice Department has said it is looking at the deaths of both Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Okla.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has also tried to reposition himself with black voters in recent weeks. But his attempted outreach has drawn its own criticism, such as when he said last week that he would expand the practice of stop-and-frisk, which was called racially discriminatory when instituted in New York City.

Trump continues to lead Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the attention he generates on Facebook.

More than 33.6 million users generated over 397 million likes, comments, shares and posts on the platform related to Trump in roughly the month leading up to the debate. Clinton trailed him with more than 298 million interactions generated by more than 28.2 million users.

The data related to the conversation on Facebook does not measure sentiment, however, so the interactions may reflect a negative, neutral or positive opinion of the candidates.

The candidates will meet at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Monday night for the first of their three scheduled debates. Moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, it will cover three broad topics: “Securing America,” “America’s Direction” and “Achieving Prosperity.”