LawFuel – The 70-second YouTube video clip featuring Hillary Clinton and purporting to come from Barack Obama is just the beginning of the Net’s take on the Presidential campaign, expert say.
The clip, which copies a 1984 Apple ad, has had over 1 million views and shows not just the power of the Net – and video sites like YouTube – but also the potential for mischief-making and influence-peddling via the Internet.
The creator of the Clinton ad is remaining silent, alhtough the Illinois senator who’s name appears has denied he had anything to do with it.
As the Washington Post points out, the ad presents a number of unknowns, including:
_How will Web content outside the control of campaigns affect voters?
_How should campaigns react to anonymous but highly viewed attacks?
_When is Web content, no matter how provocative, newsworthy?
As the Internet looks more and more like an electronic community, politicians are increasingly devoting resources to their Web sites, planting themselves in electronic gathering places such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com and posting their videos on YouTube.
Legal and other issues, many of which are already engulfing YouTube (the Viacom lawsuit), are further considerations for consideration to web-meisters in the undoubtedly changed world of electioneering.
