Pope Francis’ visit actually received wide Facebook coverage, but Brexit-related reports diverted universal attention, IT expert Samvel Martirosyan told Tert.am.

“In fact, Brexit-related reports proved to be the mainstream in, for example, Twitter. At the regional level, we can say that reports on the Pope’s visit to Armenia were among the top news stories – especially the Gyumri pictures,” Mr Martirosyan said.

“The shares addressing the Pope’s visit have been very active also on Instagram,” Martirosyan noted.

Another popular topic, he added, was the Armenian Genocide. “All the media outlets’ attention was focused on the fact that the [Pope] hadn’t initially used ‘genocide’. And there was a boom after he said it. So the Genocide has been the most actively shared topic on Facebook.”

Martirosyan noted that most of the posts with hashtags and photos were shared by Armenia-based media outlets and users. He added that reports by foreign media were given more preference. “Our media were not in a monpopolistic positions so to speak,” he added.