New Report on 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: “Pick A Side, Pick A Site”
The Domain Name System (DNS) underlies everything we do on the Internet – even campaigning for our favorite Presidential candidates. In a new report, “Pick A Side, Pick A Site,” CybelAngel and Farsight Security, Inc. examined trends looking at how Internet users are purchasing and registering domain names to create websites supporting– or rallying against — the two 2016 U.S. presidential candidates.
The primary research for this report took place between February 2013 and May 2016 and examined English-language websites only.
The complete report can be found here. Among the results in the report:
- Identified more than 20,000 websites dealing with Clinton and Trump.
- Over 3,700 websites, either pro- or anti-Clinton, were created since beginning of 2015.
- Over 7,300 websites, either pro- or anti-Trump, were created since beginning of 2015.
- Over the last two years, the growth of anti-Clinton websites was more prevalent than pro-Clinton sites.
- Between 2015 and 2016, Internet-users created 76% more anti-Trump websites than anti-Clinton ones.
In addition, the report also reveals the most popular domain names, from most positive to most negative, for each candidate.
As seen in our research, the Internet is the town square for passionate political debates such as the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. In addition to simply giving their opinions through social media, citizens even go significantly further and buy their own domains that they dedicate to their claims for or against the candidates.
