Guns dominate Facebook chatter ahead of State of the Union

Issues related to guns are dominating conversations on Facebook linked to President Obama’s final State of the Union address, which he will deliver on Tuesday night, according to data provided by the company.

In total, 15 million people generated 54 interactions — including posts, likes, shares and comments — on the platform in connection with the speech.

{mosads}After guns, the most discussed topics were Islam, the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, crime and criminal justice and, broadly, terrorism.

Tuesday night’s speech comes after a week when Obama rolled out a slate of policies aimed at curbing gun violence that have drawn the ire of the right wing. The other topics come after a year when some raised concerns about the administration’s handling of ISIS and questions about policing and inequities in the criminal justice system persisted.

The White House is hoping to harness social media to boost the reach of the State of the Union. In a post on Medium, chief digital officer Jason Goldman said the administration would be using Vine, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter during the speech.

They also joined Snapchat on Monday, where they plan to show behind-the-scenes footage for preparations for the speech.

The speech will also be streamed not only on YouTube and the White House’s website, but on Amazon’s video service. It will also be available to view on Amazon from Wednesday until the end of the week, according to the White House.