As thousands celebrated the inauguration of the 45th president, thousands more have been marching at anti-Trump rallies. Both sides have been flooding media sites with traffic, giving big data analysts lots to work with.
Like may other social analytics companies, content-delivery network Fastly was watching internet data during inauguration day yesterday.
It looked at data spikes during the big moments of the day, particularly during Trump’s speech, ranging from traffic spikes to news sites, social media posting, and activity on non-profit sites.
Fastly works with publishers and social media platforms such as BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Twitter, Wenner Media, and Condé Nast. It looked for spikes on social media during controversial or heated moments.
It also monitored traffic comparisons of domestic and international news sites and spikes in traffic to websites of non-profit causes or petitions.
At 12:01 EST, when Trump’s speech began, domestic media saw an immediate 80 percent spike in traffic. In fact there was a 232 percent increase in domestic media traffic overall as compared to one week ago.
When Trump was sworn in, international media saw an immediate 89 percent traffic spike, and there was a 217 percent in international media traffic overall as compared to 1 week prior.
The largest spike noticed by the company was to the website of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). It announced its seven-point plan to take on the Trump administration and filed its first legal action against the president. This generated a 986 percent increase in visits to http://ACLU.org.
Will the new president continue to generate huge spikes in traffic as he settles down into a hugely important job? Or will he quietly and efficiently take on the role with no major media outbursts?
You and I both have our own opinions – but only time will tell. And data analysts will be watching it all with fascination.
