Boston Globe Attacks YouTube
A Boston Globe editorial this morning has a withering attack on YouTube and the Hillary 1994 video.
The 1994 video has been seen over 2.4 million times, making it the most successful viral political ad in history.
The source of the Globe’s angst is that YouTube is not regulated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Thus anyone can technically put up a video regardless of it content and have it seen by potentially millions of people. According to the Globe this kind of user-generated content threatens to undermine the whole electoral system. The editorial finishes with the paragraph:
But suppose it was two or three days before a close election, and a scurrilous, deceitful, anonymous clip was posted on YouTube and the other sites that specialize in homemade videos. Candidates should, of course, monitor all these sites and flag the offending videos. But doesn’t YouTube have an obligation to make sure these ads are swept from its site before they can do harm? YouTube today doesn’t have a policy against attack ads late in the campaign, but it should.
I find it amazing that the Boston Globe (who are owned by the New York Times) are calling for YouTube to monitor itself and remove any type of video leading up to election day that could influence how voters will vote. I don’t think for a second that the Boston Globe would ever hold back a negative story in the week leading up to an election because it might influence voters.
This kind of user-generated and community participatory media that YouTube fosters scares traditional media sources like the Boston Globe because for the first time, they are no longer controlling the message. The power of information has switched back to the public. And that is a good thing in my opinion.
Filed under Social Media Optimization : Comments (0) : Mar 23rd, 2007
