Two voting days, a debate and a polling rule in France impacts the Internet

The French presidential run-off election held on April 24 saw a re-election of Emmanuel Macron as President of France. Similar to the first round of elections, French-language news sites outside France were impacted by local rules prohibiting exit polls until after 20:00. Internet traffic was similar on both election days (April 10 and 24), with a slight increase in traffic on April 24. Mobile devices were the primary means of accessing the internet during the election period, particularly at night. The Macron-Le Pen debate on April 20 also saw an increase in mobile requests. French news outlets experienced spikes in traffic after 20:00 local time on both election days, while Belgian and Swiss news sites had major increases in traffic earlier due to the absence of restrictions on exit polls. Official French election-related websites saw significant spikes in traffic during the week leading up to the first round of elections, with the largest spikes occurring on both election days. Major French news websites also experienced their biggest spikes at 20:00 local time when the first major polls were revealed. The Macron-Le Pen debate on April 20 also saw a significant increase in traffic to news outlets and TV station websites.