Social media in the 2016 United States presidential election

Donald Trump's official White House portrait (taken 2017)

The Trump campaign made extensive use of social media platforms, notably Twitter, to reach voters. Unlike other candidates, Trump's Twitter and Facebook posts link to news media rather than the campaign site to focus more on media-based appearance.[16] Based on the data gathered by the Pew Research Center, 78% of his retweets involved the general public.[16] Trump has become well-documented in his frequent Twitter posts.[17] With social media acting as free media and publicity, Trump harnessed Twitter as a platform to respond quickly to his opponents and tweet about his stance on various issues. Before the Republican National Convention where Trump was named the Republican candidate,[18] he would relentlessly target his fellow Republican candidates when their poll numbers would rise.[19] Trump utilized Twitter frequently both during and after the 2016 presidential election, explaining that social media helped him win the primary and general elections even though his opponents spent "much more money than [he] spent".[20] While Slate explains that Trump succeeded because he retained his "vulgar vigor and translated it into the political arena",[17] the Washington Post has called his Twitter account "prolific, populist, and self-obsessed".[19]

The Trump presidential campaign also benefited from large numbers of supporters who were active on social media from the beginning of the campaign. In the first Republican Presidential debate, held on August 6, 2015, the moderator asked candidate Jeb Bush if he stood by a statement made the previous April that illegal entry into the U.S. by undocumented migrants is "an act of love."[21] Bush replied that he did and the Trump campaign immediately posted his comment as part of a video showing mugshots of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the US, alternating with footage of Bush saying, "Yeah, they broke the law, but it's not a felony… It's an act of love."[22][23] According to Eric Fehrnstrom, political analyst and media strategist, the video marked a crucial turning point in the campaign for the Republican nomination.[21] Political analyst Michael Barone regarded the ad as a key moment in Trump's political rise.[24] The San Francisco Chronicle described the ad as pivotal in transforming Instagram from a personal photo-sharing app that some celebrities and politicians used to enhance their images, into a propaganda tool.[25]

Donald Trump's tweet activity from his first tweet in May 2009. His tweet activity pattern has changed from 2013.

Supporters of Donald Trump and opponents of Hillary Clinton conducted an Internet campaign between June 2015 and November 2016 in an effort to sway the election. During this time period users of social media, especially Reddit and 4chan, conducted numerous "operations" to sway public opinion using Internet memes, Internet posts and online media.[26][27][28] The Internet conflict that arose from this campaign has been dubbed by some as "The Great Meme War".

Right Side Broadcasting Network frequently uploaded live streams of Donald Trump rallies on YouTube. As of September 2016, the channel has received over 210 thousand subscribers, exceeding the subscribers of MSNBC's YouTube channel.[29]

On Reddit, r/The Donald was a pro-Trump subforum (termed a subreddit on Reddit) that ranked consistently as the most active on the site.[30][31] Due to the very active community and the algorithm that dictated what content reached the "r/all" default page of the website, a significant portion of the r/all page was content from r/The_Donald. In response, Reddit made changes to its algorithms on June 15 in an attempt to preserve variety of r/all.[32] On July 27, 2016, Trump participated in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on r/The_Donald, answering thirteen questions from his supporters.[33] r/The_Donald was more active and had a higher subscriber count than the subreddit for Hillary Clinton, r/HillaryClinton, until it was shut down by Reddit in 2020 for repeated breaches of policy.[34]

Hillary Clinton in 2016

Hillary Clinton's campaign team used already established social media strategies and tactics that the candidate had used in previous elections to help boost her popularity in the 2016 election. None of the other candidates had recently run for president, inevitably making the tactic unique to Clinton.[35] During the campaign, Trump and Clinton both used external links on their social media posts to connect their audience with outside information. A Pew Research study showed that 80% of Clinton's posts included links to her website or campaign pages, while 78% of Trump's posts included links to news media. It was also found that on Facebook, Clinton linked to her campaign 60% of the time, and the news media a quarter of the time.[36] The Clinton campaign used social media to advertise Trump's use of fake news and potential Russian intervention. Many argue that Clinton's loss was in part due to Trump gaining the votes of groups that do not use social media, while Clinton's audience is active on most social media platforms.[37]

In August 2015, Clinton was involved in a back-and-forth with Jeb Bush. Bush copied one of Clinton's Twitter graphics that discussed student debt. Clinton responded by crossing out the words on Bush's graphic and stating “F: The grade to Florida for college affordability under Jeb Bush’s leadership.” with the caption “@JebBush Fixed it for you.” Bush responded with a graphic of his own that used Clinton's logo to criticize the growing tax rate.” In this incident, Clinton and Bush used popular social media trends to capture their target audience and grow their social media presence.[38]

Twitter activity of Hillary Clinton from her first tweet in June 2013 to September 2017. Her tweet activity increased in 2015.

In April 2016, Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton super PAC, announced a program called "Barrier Breakers" intended to rival the largely online volunteer efforts of Sanders and Trump supporters. With $1 million in funding, Correct the Record employed paid staff described as "former reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, designers" to post "exclusively positive content".[39]

On June 9, 2016, as a response to Donald Trump's tweet regarding Obama's endorsement to Clinton, she wrote with a three-word tweet: "Delete your account"; it became her most retweeted tweet of all time.[40][41] After the Democratic National Convention, Clinton began campaigning with running mate, Tim Kaine, and while on the campaign trail, she stated, "I don't know who created Pokémon Go...I try to get them to have Pokémon Go to the polls".[42]

Clinton began using social media platform Snapchat to chronicle her campaign across America.[43] One of her videos, where she proclaimed that she was, "Just chillin', in Cedar Rapids", quickly became a meme on video-sharing app Vine.[44]

Twitter activity of Ted Cruz

According to The Guardian, Cruz was "skewered by social media memes". His run for the Presidency was ended by a series of memes, including a viral video of an unusually awkward attempt to shake hands with his running mate Carly Fiorina, which was edited to emphasize his awkwardness in reality. The video was viewed 3.5 million times online. In addition, a mock-conspiracy theory faux-asserted that Cruz was the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified serial killer active in northern California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s (humorously, largely before Cruz was even born).[9]

Twitter activity of Bernie Sanders from his first tweet in May 2009. His Twitter activity increased during his presidential campaign.

Bernie Sander's large spending on Facebook and Instagram ads had attracted a large following of young voters. His online advertising also bolstered his campaign by raising nearly 230 million.[45] His use of language on Twitter is more emotional and plain. In one of his post regarding affordable college tuition, he writes, "It's a disgrace that hundreds of thousands of bright and qualified young people are unable to afford higher education. This must end."[46] His Twitter posts regarding affordable college tuition gives him more retweets compared to Hillary Clinton.[46][47]

Social media is widely acknowledged to have played a crucial role in the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. As of May 2016, 450,000 people belong to the Facebook group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash, one of the several online groups supporting Sanders. Memes were used as the primary means of starting conversational topics in groups such as Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash and Bernie Sanders is my HERO, which were primarily devoted to debating & educating, and praising Bernie whilst pointing out flaws in rival candidates Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton in comical ways. "Bernie or Hillary?",[48][49][50] or "Bernie vs. Hillary",[50][51] was an Internet meme made popular during the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination in the United States 2016 presidential election in which Internet users who mostly favored Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton compared the two candidates in faux political posters, with Sanders being portrayed as more macho and fun and Clinton being portrayed as more offbeat.[52] The meme was initially posted on Tumblr, but soon spread to Reddit and Twitter.[53] Similar memes comparing presidential candidates to each other continued to be posted throughout the election, on a variety of social media platforms.[54]

The humorous Balanced Rebellion video in which "Dead Abe Lincoln" endorses Johnson has been the most widely viewed viral video of any candidate the 2016 campaign.[56] The advertisement shows the many negative aspects of both Hillary and Trump, and states that Johnson will protect our freedoms.[57] Another video that made headlines shows the former New Mexico governor[58] faking a heart attack during a debate on the legalization of marijuana.[59] Johnson also received a 5,000 percent increase in Google searches when Ted Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.[60] As a third party candidate, one of Johnson's main focuses was to convince dissatisfied Republicans and Democrats to vote for him. One way to attract more voters was to go to the Democratic National Convention to persuade disheartened Bernie Sanders supporters to vote for him. This method proved to be somewhat effective as Johnson had a surge in online interactions about the former Governor during the two days of the convention, July 26 and 27.[61]

Twitter activity of Jill Stein from her first tweet in February 2010 to September 2017. Her Twitter activity increased during her presidential campaign in 2012 and 2016

Jill Stein made extensive use of Twitter for her presidential campaign. She used the social media platform to communicate with Americans before, during, and after the presidential debate at Hofstra University.[62] Stein used her Twitter influence in hopes that it would demonstrate a "changing political landscape" where voters weren't only faced with two options for president.[63] Stein was trending for the first time on Twitter the week of July 20, 2016 and gained 27,000 new followers.[64] Stein also followed Gary Johnson in attempting sway discouraged Bernie Sanders supporters to vote for her in the election. This led to a boost in online conversation about Stein during the DNC, as it had done with Johnson previously.[61] After the end of the election, Stein requested a recount in Wisconsin.[65] She used her social media influence to raise millions of dollars for recounts in not only Wisconsin, but also Pennsylvania and Michigan.[66] Stein stated that the reason for the recount was to assure that no hacking of voting machines or voter results occurred.[65]

In March 2018, an anonymous whistleblower (later revealed to be former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie) revealed to the press that during the 2016 election, Cambridge Analytica used a misleading app to collect personal information on users' and their friends' Facebook profiles without their consent. The information collected was subsequently to build data profiles on users, which were then used for targeted political advertising. Though only 270,000 people downloaded the app, it is estimated that over 50 million Facebook users were affected, due to the large number of likes and reposts that some ads received.[67] This social media strategy was used in the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz during the 2016 election.[68][69]

The scandal eventually resulted in the testification of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg and whistleblower Christopher Wylie in front of Congress, the liquidation of Cambridge Analytica as well as a fine of $5 billion for Facebook.[70][71] It also provoked a global debate about the ethics surrounding data harvesting and privacy, especially in political contexts.[72][73]

Throughout the 2016 election, the Internet Research Agency, attempted to influence the electoral outcome in favor of Donald Trump by creating large numbers of social media accounts to like, share and re-post positive information on Trump and negative information on Clinton.[74]

Russian computer hacks also infiltrated the information systems of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and posted the files obtained on a number of websites such as DCLeaks, Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks.[75]

In May 2017, a special counsel investigation was conducted by Robert Mueller, which ultimately concluded in its final report that the Russian interference violated U.S. criminal law and the integrity of the election, in favor of Republican candidate Donald Trump.[76]