Mcfon: Healthcare Ruling Sparks 13,000 Tweets Per Minute

The Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as “Obamacare,” set off a frenzy ofTwitter activity on Thursday, peaking at 13,166 tweets per minute, according to @gov.

Obamacare-related tweets narrowly missed dethroning President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address as the most-tweeted event in recent political history (the address generated a peak of 14,131 tweets per minute).

The most activity on Twitter, according to @gov, surrounding the ruling occurred at 10:17 a.m. ET — the time when users of the social network were trying to sort out conflicting reports of the court’s decision.

After the decision, politicians and citizens took to Twitter to express their support or opposition of the court’s decision. Republicans and conservatives, who decry the Affordable Care Act as a government overreach, used hashtags such as #FullRepeal, #Obamatax and #ObamacareInThreeWords to rally their socially-savvy base. Democrats and liberals fought back with #ACA and a slew of YouTube videos arguing that the bill has made life easier for many Americans.

Some tweets may have gone a bit too far — Patrick Gaspard, executive director of the Democratic National Committee, later apologized for this reaction that went viral:

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney’s campaign was able to turn the right’s disdain for Obamacare into cold hard cash: In 24 hours, it raised $4.6 million through more than 47,000 online donations. Its social followers are reportedly up as well.

What exactly were the rest of Twitter users posting about the court’s decision?

Social media analysis firm Crimson Hexagon took a look at about 130,000 Obamacare-related tweets posted on Thursday. Its analysis shows that 48% of those tweets were in support of the Affordable Care Act, 29% of tweets called for its repeal while 22% were neutral, merely spreading the news of the court’s decision.