--- title: Democratic Debate: How Social Media Reacted description: Internet users had a lot too say Thursday during the Democratic debate, according to data from social media networks and search engines. canonical: https://time.com/4208948/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-05T03:47:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T19:03:23.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How Social Media Reacted During the Democratic Debate og:description: Twitter users picked Hillary, while Google searches felt the Bern og:url: https://time.com/4208948/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60e86e9068b96653/69887c3d0b72e3b8646e7fdc/timepol-democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Social Media Reacted During the Democratic Debate twitter:description: Twitter users picked Hillary, while Google searches felt the Bern twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60e86e9068b96653/69887c3d0b72e3b8646e7fdc/timepol-democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Social Media Reacted During the Democratic Debate by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:03 PM UTCPublished: Feb 5, 2016 3:47 AM UTC  Democratic presidential candidates former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appear at a Democratic debate at the University of New Hampshire on Feb. 4, 2016 in Durham, N.H. Democratic presidential candidates former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appear at a Democratic debate at the University of New Hampshire on Feb. 4, 2016 in Durham, N.H.Mike Segar—Reuters by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:03 PM UTCPublished: Feb 5, 2016 3:47 AM UTC Internet users had a lot to say Thursday during the [Democratic debate](http://time.com/4208461/democratic-debate-progressive-liberal-moderate/?xid=homepage)—with mixed results, according to data from social media networks and search engines. While candidates[ Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/4208933/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-public-funding-campaign/) and [Hillary Clinton ](http://time.com/4208917/hillary-clinton-establishment/)duked it out on stage, viewers participated online, searching the candidates or mentioning them in posts on social media. Data from Google showed Sanders leading Clinton in number of searches, while Clinton led the conversation on Twitter. Data from Twitter showed mentions of Clinton taking up 56% of the conversation on the platform during the fifth Democratic debate. Google searches, however, for Sanders were higher both around the country and in New Hampshire, according to Google Trends. > [](https://twitter.com/gov/status/695458886631821313) > [](https://twitter.com/GoogleTrends/status/695459388425764865) Times where Sanders and Clinton went [back and forth over regulating Wall Street](http://time.com/4207487/hillary-clinton-wall-street-speeches/) were the most popular individual moments of the debate with Twitter users. Data from social media, especially Twitter mentions [proved valuable in predicting the results of the Iowa Caucus](http://time.com/4203742/iowa-caucus-twitter-data/), where Clinton ultimately won in a close contest. > [](https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/695447091972169728) > [](https://twitter.com/Phil%5FLewis%5F/status/695433810209419265) > [](https://twitter.com/HEELZiggler/status/695446940960444416) > [](https://twitter.com/deray/status/695433497935122435) > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/695445362199437312) > [](https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/695457619297857536) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4208948/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4208948/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media/"},"headline":"Here's How Social Media Reacted During the Democratic Debate","datePublished":"2016-02-05T03:47:33.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T19:03:23.000Z","description":"Twitter users picked Hillary, while Google searches felt the Bern","url":"https://time.com/4208948/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media/","keywords":["Debates","Tech","Social Media","2016 Election topic","Internet","Google","facebook","twitter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60e86e9068b96653/69887c3d0b72e3b8646e7fdc/timepol-democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60e86e9068b96653/69887c3d0b72e3b8646e7fdc/timepol-democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Clinton talks about Senator Sanders as they discuss issues during the Democratic presidential candidates debate sponsored by MSNBC at the University of New Hampshire in Durham","creditText":"Mike Segar—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4208948/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-social-media/","name":"Here's How Social Media Reacted During the Democratic Debate"}}]}] ```