US election is this year's most 'talked about' topic on Facebook

Brazilian politics, including the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, was the second-most mentioned topic

The US presidential election was the most "talked about" topic on Facebook in 2016, in a year filled with discussion and debate on issues that were both serious and light-hearted.

The bitterly contested election in which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton was ranked as the leading issue, followed by Brazil's political developments which included the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, Facebook said in a blog post.

On the lighter side at number three was the runaway success of Pokemon Go, the location-based augmented reality game for smartphone users.

Other subject matters shared among Facebook's 1.79 billion users were more sober, with the fourth leading topic the "Black Lives Matter" movement, followed by the election in the Philippines of Rodrigo Duterte.

Number six on the list was the Olympic games, followed by Brexit, the Super Bowl and the deaths of rock star David Bowie and boxing icon Muhammad Ali.

Facebook said it measured leading topics by how frequently an issue was mentioned in posts made between January 1 and November 27.

Facebook's first ranking of live videos saw a runaway victory by "Chewbacca Mom," from the Texas woman who donned a mask of the Star Wars character and laughed hysterically as she drove. The video has been viewed more than 160 million times.