Ben Carson Led Rand Paul, Ted Cruz in Facebook Interactions Earlier This Month

— -- The number of Facebook interactions related to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson were more than double those related to Sen. Rand Paul, whom he is competing against for the GOP nomination for president in 2016.

Facebook, which provided the approximated data to ABC News, defines interactions as posts, comments, likes and shares. The social network measured the interactions between May 6 and May 12 of this year. Carson formally declared a run for the White House just days before the measured time period.

The Kentucky senator garnered about 1 million interactions, while Carson, the pediatric neurosurgeon, achieved about 2.2 million. Other Republicans, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee all garnered fewer interactions than Carson as well.

On the other side of the aisle, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton achieved approximately 5.3 million interactions.