As crazed dictator Vladimir Putin continues to posture on the Ukrainian border and the world holds its collective breath of his next move that could trigger Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II, it appears Europe’s woes are not bothering most Americans according to the latest Facebook data into what Americans are clicking on.
Data compiled by social media tracking firm NewsWhip and reported on US news site Forbes has calculated what’s trending amongst Americans on Facebook and conflict in the Balkans is definitely not one of them.
According to NewsWhip, not a single link to a story about Ukraine appeared in the top 100 link posts in the past week on the social media platform.
Admittedly, the top news stories of the day aren’t always what’s trending on social media, but to see a story of this magnitude, that’s on the front page of every newspaper, not trend at all has shocked NewsWhip researchers.
The only time Ukraine did get a mention was when rightwing rocker Kid Rock had a dig at President Joe Biden about any potential conflict might have on “higher gas prices if Russia invades the Ukraine”.
Further still, most people – some 180,000, in fact – went on to click on the musician’s upcoming tour dates.
Kid Rock beat out local news stories about a former Tuskegee airman turning 100 and firefighters rescuing a dog trapped in a 15-foot hole, which were the second and third most popular stories, respectively.