People were worried about Trump’s seeming victory well before even all the votes were counted, flooding Google with immigration related queries
After months of campaigning, scandals, leaks, and tongue-lashing, the US presidential elections have finally drawn to a close. Republican candidate Donald Trump has officially been elected to the White House, much to the dismay of anti-Trumpers across the country, and indeed around the world. “Damn. Trump could win the presidency,” said one Facebook user. “You can’t imagine how hard it is to type that sentence.” Others meanwhile had more long-term concerns about POTUS’ mental stability. “Donald Trump is about to be given the codes to 3,500 nuclear warheads,” said another user on Twitter.”
And yet people were worried about Trump’s seeming victory well before all the votes were even counted. Canada’s department of immigration website crashed in the wee hours of Wednesday, and continued to sporadically fail throughout the morning, reportedly due to a surge in their traffic. Meanwhile, various emigration-related search queries on Google began trending in the US at about 7:22 am (IST), around the time polling closed in most states.
The trend continued throughout Wednesday, with the search term ‘emigrate’ peaking at around 10:34 am (IST), when Trump began pulling into the lead.
Interestingly, the emigration searches were highest in states that voted in favour of Hillary Clinton, with Oregon, Washington, and Vermont leading the pack, though a couple of Republican-voting states like Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas also made it to the list.
Looking at the numbers and their upward trend, one can surmise that voters began to worry when they saw Trump pulling ahead in the elections, and began to seriously consider moving to another country. Of course, the top choice for emigration hopefuls was Canada. However, some truly desperate souls even began searching for a new home country further away, with New Zealand and Australia grabbing the second and third slots for popular choices.
Also on the list were options like Iceland, Finland, and even the United Kingdom, indicating some Americans would choose to live in an unstable post-Brexit UK rather than Trump’s America. In fact, many Americans couldn’t believe their eyes as they watched the US map of the states fill with red. More than a few compared the events unfolding to an episode of Black Mirror, the BBC’s dystopian sci-fi television series, known for its dark takes on humanity and technology. “This is seriously some kind of terrible Black Mirror episode. Sadly here, nothing was scripted,” said one Facebook user. Still others feared the worst, as evidenced by a popular related search on Google being ‘End Times’ the religious prophecy of the end of the world.
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