UC Davis

Daily data on the use of the world’s 425 most frequently visited websites by 118 countries were mined over the 4-month period September 1 to December 31, 2015, to create a longitudinal two-mode network (countries and websites). This paper describes the changes in the international World Wide Web (WWW), as a network, to determine the effects of unanticipated shocks (the terrorist attacks on Paris and San Bernardino) and predictable events [national holidays (Golden Week, Christmas, New Years) and shopping days, Black Friday and 11/11]. The results indicate that while there are changes in the use of individual websites, due to weekly cycles in viewing specific websites, the shocks and other social and cultural events, the overall network is remarkably stable. This resilience is due to the constraints that network ties place on the relationships among the websites, which limits their potential behavior.