As Britain Votes to Leave EU, What Tweets Reveal About Brexit

While ultimately very close, the Brexit seemed likely, given the tweets. According to a report from Expert System the University of Aberdeen using Expert System’s Cogito cognitive technology, 65% of tweets in June from Britain related to the Brexit leaned toward leaving the European Union.

The percentages were highest in England (up to 77% as the poll approached) and lowest in Wales (23%). The analysis developed by Expert System and the University of Aberdeen suggests that jobs, immigration, and government issues were the most discussed topics in all four countries as they were included in 16.2%, 14.8% and 14.6% of all tweets analyzed, respectively. On the other hand, taxes (3.7%), pensions (2.4%), and security (1.9%) played only a marginal role in the debate.

Google Trends revealed today that the EU quickly became a hot topic on the search engine, dominated in Britain by questions like “What is the EU” and “Which countries are in the EU?” and globally by questions like “Why did Britain leave the EU?” and “What is ‘Brexit’?” Other search terms, such as “getting an Irish passport” and “buy gold,” also spiked following the Brexit announcement.