Srs Bsns: How The Internet Reacted To The First Day Of U.S. Election Results Around The World

Well, just as everyone predicted, the 2020 U.S. election has been a historic one, to say the least. Although countless individuals, media outlets and politicians have been saying for months that the final results will take longer than usual compared to recent elections, people around the world have been glued to news coverage and social media platforms nevertheless, waiting to see if Donald Trump or Joe Biden will claim the presidency.

Now that it's been a full 24 hours since the nonstop media coverage began, how has the internet responded thus far? Whether you're strongly backing one of the candidates or if you're tuned in purely for the spectacle of it all, it's been nothing short of a nail-biter.

To the surprise of none, celebrities and influential individuals have taken to Twitter in droves as they vied to post the funniest take, support for their preferred candidate or most inspirational message. The most common themes appeared to be nihilism or cynicism as they coped with the creeping results.

Both a celebrity and a presidential candidate, Kanye West finally conceded his 2020 presidential bid earlier today. Though he was never expected to really be a contender, he did announce that he’ll be making a return in 2024 … so perhaps we haven’t seen the last of President Ye.

As for the candidates themselves, Trump tweeted out a plethora of reactions between the night of the election and the following day, mostly flipping between premature claims of wins, calling out what he perceived as election fraud or casting doubt on results as the mail-in ballots crept into play. Several of his tweets were also flagged by Twitter with the message “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” obscuring his engagement numbers on the platform and restricting users from interacting with them.

No one knows for sure what the current president will do regarding his statements of “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court,” and “We want all voting to stop,” during last night’s speech, but his campaign has already filed suits in an attempt to halt the counting of ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Biden’s Twitter was more subdued, tweeting out the usual reactions from what you’d expect of a more traditional candidate: hopeful messages, slight jabs at his opponent but mostly calls to remain patient and count every vote, which also trended on the platform as a hashtag.

Since this election isn’t solely for deciding the presidency, there were also lots of Senate and House seats up for grabs. Perhaps the most interesting and noteworthy of these came from unexpected winner Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who will now be the youngest member of Congress in modern history. After his win, Cawthorn’s tweet of “Cry more, lib” garnered significant attention, both in forms of criticism and praise.

So what about the rest of the world? How did other countries react so far? One of America’s closest neighbors, Canada, saw a mixed response from politicians. During a conference yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while he plans to watch some of the coverage, “Canada is well-positioned and ready to continue to work with the American people and the American government, regardless of the outcomes of tonight.” Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, had a more pointed response and said in a tweet yesterday that, “Trump makes the world a more dangerous place for all of us and I hope to see him lose.”

In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, known for his close relationship with Trump, merely refused to comment earlier today on the election, adding that the UK government does not comment on the democratic processes of their allies and friends. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said the election and its uncertainty was “a very explosive situation,” telling ZDF Morgenmagazin in an interview that it was of great concern to them overall. EU leadership was mostly quiet overall, urging patience and acceptance for whatever the outcome.

Right-leaning leaders in Europe were more outspoken, mostly voicing their support for Trump. Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s League Party, wrote in a tweet, “A great victory for Biden was promised in all the newspapers. As usual they didn’t get it right.” Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally, said the election was close and interesting but believed that a Trump win would be best for France.

In Asia, early results trickled in as markets were trading, resulting in some fluctuations as uncertainty took hold. According to the NY Times, South Korean newspapers were similarly glued to the results, watching updates in real-time with massive coverage from media outlets around the country as they expressed their surprise with Trump’s performance. Chinese state news media appeared to be fixated on mostly highlighting potential riots and violence stemming from the contested election, with CCTV airing footage of the police presence in Washington D.C. engaging with protesters outside the White House.

Ahead of the election, some businesses in the US are boarding up their store windows fearing post-election unrest. This kind of unrest is usually complication of elections in poor countries, but people are worried it may appear in the US. The US is in degradation. pic.twitter.com/bBzPiwhVgg

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 3, 2020

Meanwhile, in Russia, government officials did not comment on the election. According to the Guardian, Konstantin Kosachev, a Putin ally and chairman on the foreign affairs committee, said their absence from this election was an attempt to avoid being further accused of interference after the 2016 election. “It’s better for Russia if there is a decisive result, so that the loser will not resort to claims of foreign interference. It’s time for America to return to the politics of sanity.” Alexey Navalny, the main opposition leader in Russia, added a snarky remark to the results in a tweet and said, “I woke up and went on Twitter to find out who won. Nothing is clear yet. So, this is a real election.”

As for the memes, most of them appeared to center around humorous takes on how things were unfolding, sprinkled with a heft dose of nihilism and “copium” as social media coined their form of acceptance, particularly on Twitter and Reddit.

Also on Twitter, many users took notice of the humor that today was “National Stress Awareness Day,” as the hashtag trended on the platform with countless users expressing feelings of quite the opposite.

Elsewhere online, memers took jabs at Trump and his supporters for jumping the gun on celebrating, mocking Democrats for their presidential candidate selection or the slow pace of the results, especially certain swing states that decided to hold off until the morning to finish counting.

On the other hand, 4chan’s /pol/ board was a mix of extreme takes from all sides of the aisle, with the election results thread posting numerous memes of expected reactions from supporters of both Biden and Trump.

We still don’t know for sure which way this thing will go, as several key states are coming down to the wire on Wednesday night, but this election has surely been one for the history books.