On the U.S. election day, web traffic went down to nearly 15 percent. On an overall basis, this was because almost people stayed glued to television networks to see election outcome. While it didn't affect globally, the surge did made a sudden fluctuation.
On the other hand, most of the traffic went to Facebook and Twitter. The two were having huge traffic increase as more people are seeking for real-time conversation, news and comments. According to the data published by broadband network company Sandvine which tracked the impact the election had on internet usage, Facebook's traffic went up to almost 30 percent while Twitter saw double.
The traffic surge was also because people were reading and sharing their thoughts and feelings about the election across Facebook and Twitter. This indicates that more people are depending on social networks for hassle-free updates on breaking news highlights.
At the same time, the increase of traffic about the election also increased the number of fake, viral, clickbait masquerading as news about the topic.
Netflix is the streaming service, popular and the largest source of internet traffic in North America. With more people glued to their televisions and social networks, the service saw a sudden 25 percent decline in traffic when compared to the previous day.