Ten years later, ‘Pokémon Go to the polls’ still haunts the internet

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 suggestion that people play Pokémon Go “to the polls” became a lasting internet meme, resurfacing on US Election Day ten years later. The article uses the phrase’s persistence to show how political campaigns and online culture have become closely intertwined.

The remark was made at a Virginia rally as Clinton promoted jobs in technology and app development. Since then, politicians have adopted memes and social platforms as campaign tools, while the online environment has changed with algorithmic feeds and AI-generated content. For some younger people, the phrase now evokes nostalgia for an earlier internet; Spotify reported a 790% rise in playlists with “2016” in their titles during the first three weeks of the year.