Facebook like thumb
Credit: Image by owenwbrown on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Facebook has played an increasingly prominent role in how news organisations share their stories and, as tweaks to Facebook's newsfeed algorithm gave publishers a traffic boost, the world's largest social network brought more news stories to users.

Following yesterday's top stories on Twitter in 2013, here's a list of 2013's most talked about news stories on Facebook, based on information from the social data tool Searchmetrics.

We analysed data for the websites for the BBC, Guardian, Daily Mail, the Times, the Telegraph, the Express, the Independent, the Sun, the Mirror, ITV News and Channel 4 News, counting the number of times a news story's URL was shared, liked or commented on on Facebook.

Out of the 10 stories below, four revolve around a visual element – a video, picture story or interactive – and one story's URL is for the outlet's mobile site.

Compared to previous years, the most social story on Facebook has almost twice the number of interactions than that of 2011 and has more than double that of 2012.

The top 10 most shared, commented and liked on Facebook in 2013

1. MailOnline: Harassed boyfriend jumped to his death after his girlfriend insisted on going into another clothes shop

Total: 627,609 shares, comments and likes

2. The Guardian: Aldi confirms up to 100% horsemeat in beef products

Total: 562,405

3. MailOnline: Dog tired! Adorable toddler and his 'puppy brother' Theo who nap together every day (picture story)

Total: 477,045

4. MailOnline: Haunting reminder of millions of lives lost in war as artists stencil 9,000 bodies onto Normandy beach to mark Peace Day (picture story)

Total: 470,958

5. The Guardian: Sinéad O'Connor's open letter to Miley Cyrus

Total: 431,348

6. The Express: 100 DAYS OF HEAVY SNOW: Britain now facing worst winter in SIXTY YEARS warn forecasters

Total: 381,704

7. BBC: The Great British class calculator: What class are you? (interactive)

Total: 340,112

8. The Express: HEAVY SNOW WARNING: Shock long range UK weather forecast for winter 2013

Total: 331,267

9. MailOnline: Family frozen in time: Eerie images of the abandoned farm houses where even the beds are still made (picture story)

Total: 326,730

10. The Guardian: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations (mobile web URL)

Total: 322,418

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).