Tech of the 2012 Presidential Election
As the US election season heats up, candidates and parties are competing for the attention of the voting public. That means building apps and harnessing social media or other new technology better than the opposition. How does a candidate's Pinterest profile affect their chances of winning? We're not sure yet, but we're ready to find out.
Web & Social
After 2012 election, Republicans learn hard lessons about the power of social media
Young, tech-savvy Republicans are using Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential election to teach more seasoned party operatives the importance of social media in rallying votes, Robert Draper reports for The New York Times Magazine. Draper's piece is more than just a crunchy political post mortem, offering an entertaining and insightful look at the Grand Old Party's quest to remake itself for the social age.
One right-leaning digital advocacy firm, Red Edge, has been showing fellow Republicans a...
Inside the Obama Campaign's Team Tech
Over the course of the recent election cycle you might have heard references to the Obama campaign’s focus on tech solutions and the corresponding edge it had in the presidential race — especially when compared with the competition. Ars Technica takes a look at the innerworkings of the incumbent president’s Team Tech, and how former Threadless CTO (and awesome Chrome extension author) Harper Reed's group of engineers used Amazon Web Services, some clever code, and a startup mentality to...
Killer fail: how Romney's broken Orca app cost him thousands of votes
A few days before the presidential election, Mitt Romney’s campaign announced what it hoped would be its secret weapon at the polls. Dubbed Project Orca, it let volunteers use a web app to search for and mark off voters as they left the polling location, then collected the data to use in projections or check which Romney supporters might need a call. "When the exit polls come out, we won't pay attention to that," Communications Director Gail Gitcho told PBS. "We will have had much more...
Number crunchers, ascendant: how data was the real winner in Obama's reelection
Less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama secured another four years in office, Time is offering up an exclusive peek at how his campaign operation managed to thwart Mitt Romney's White House aspirations. Put simply, the key ingredient was data. During Obama's initial 2008 bid for office, his team had already embraced technology in a greater capacity than any before it, assembling massive email lists and other targeted initiatives that earned Obama historic fundraising tallies. But for...
Obama's 'Four more years' victory photo already the most retweeted and liked of all time
Barack Obama has been re-elected as President of the United States, and it looks like he's taken another prize as well — he can now lay claim to the most popular tweet of all time. The tweet, which simply states "Four more years" alongside a photo of Obama embracing his wife Michelle, has been retweeted over 320,000 times and counting. Buzzfeed points out that this beat the previous record — said to have been set by Justin Bieber — after just 22 minutes, and the gap has since risen to...
Seeing through the hologram: network TV's ridiculous election technology
In 2008, CNN’s reporting of the presidential election was overshadowed by its "hologram": a ring of 35 cameras projected correspondent Jessica Yellin from Chicago to Wolf Blitzer’s New York studio. While not technically a true hologram, it was certainly impressive, evoking Star Wars’ Princess Leia — who would be referenced endlessly in the coming days. But as CNN called state after state, my friends and I weren’t amused. We were there to see the race, not a gimmick that was...
President Obama posts message on Reddit urging users to vote before the polls close
President Obama is no stranger to Reddit — he hosted a brief "ask me anything" session back in August. Now, with just over two hours left until the polls close on the east coast, the president has jumped back on Reddit and posted a message urging users to get out there and vote, "whatever your political persuasion." For those that already voted, President Obama requested that users spread the word to friends and family — "think of it as upvoting," the president said. While it's highly...
Feed the machine: America's stumble through a decade of electronic voting
On October 25, President Barack Obama returned to Chicago, Illinois, walking into the Martin Luther King Community Center in the city's Bronzeville neighborhood to cast his vote. Like about a third of American voters, he did so before Election Day. And also like many Americans, he used an electronic voting system — he submitted his ballot using a 15-inch touchscreen machine known as the Sequoia AVC Edge.
That seemingly minor detail holds significance for only the collection of computer...
Uber offering free rides to voting locations during Presidential Election
In what appears to be an attempt to save face after drastically raising its black car service rates following Hurricane Sandy, Uber has announced that it will be giving new users free trips to voting stations on November 6th. Through the partnership with Rock the Vote, first-time Uber users can travel to or from their local polling locations free of charge. Of course, there are a few caveats: the ride(s) must begin or end at polling stations, they have to occur during voting hours, and the...
Google giving customized results when people search for Obama, but not Romney
Google shows personalized search results that prioritize Barack Obama for users that have recently searched for the President, but Mitt Romney isn't getting the same treatment. That's the result of a Wall Street Journal investigation into the search company's algorithm, which found that terms such as "Iran," "Medicare," and "gay marriage" would all return results related to President Obama if an "Obama" query had previously been entered. These results were marked in gray type stating "You...
Democrats more than twice as likely as Republicans to donate via cellphone
Democrats are more than twice as likely as their Republican counterparts to make presidential campaign contributions via text message or a mobile app, according to a study published by the Pew Research Center last week. Using data taken from two national telephone surveys in September, the report concludes that 15 percent of Democrat donors have made contributions using the above means, while just 6 percent of Republicans have done similarly. Democrats also lead Republicans 57 percent to 34...
New Jersey will let citizens displaced by Hurricane Sandy vote by email or fax
New Jersey has announced that it will allow registered voters in the state who were displaced by Hurricane Sandy, and first responders assisting in recovery efforts, to vote over the internet by email or fax. New Jersey, along with several other states, already allow military and overseas voters to cast ballots over the internet. Some states offer remote voting options more broadly, including Oregon, which uses mail-in ballots statewide, but remote online voting is rare and controversial in...
Twitter's Political Engagement Map tracks how people respond to the candidates' tweets
Twitter has been particularly active this election cycle, offering tweet-based popularity charts of Romney and Obama and selling its first political trending topic. Today, it's added the Political Engagement Map, another effort to harness Twitter's potential as a polling platform. The map is conceptually simple: it takes each recent tweet from Romney and Obama and checks the number of favorites and retweets it's received, then checks location to plot it by US state. Clicking on a given tweet...
Google launches Voter Information Tool ahead of presidential election
Google this week launched its Voter Information Tool, an online resource for information on this year's presidential election. On the site, users can locate their nearest polling place, as well as nearby early vote venues. The tool also includes information on voting rules and requirements, in addition to basic details on each presidential candidate, with links to their respective social media sites. The tool is essentially a revamped version of the US Voter Info site Google launched ahead of...
TechCrunch debuts CrunchGov, a guide to tech policy developed with Silicon Valley's help
Silicon Valley news blog TechCrunch just launched a beta version of CrunchGov, a policy information hub that will reflect the interests of the technology industry, specifically internet and consumer electronics companies. The mini-site was inspired in part by the coordinated online protest to the Stop Online Piracy Act at the beginning of the year, founding writer Greg Ferenstein said.
"First and foremost, this is a media experiment," he told The Verge. "We're not getting into advocacy, but...
In 2012 election, the meme factory hones its assembly line
About 100 people had gathered for a generously-catered, open bar party in the West Village offices of Livestream, which was co-hosting a viewing of the third presidential debate with Tumblr. The night’s official theme was "Live-GIFing the 2012 Debates," and, despite the free flow of wine, the audience was initially discouraged by the dry debate's dearth of meme-able moments.
The startups had commissioned six digital artists to live-GIF the debate. They sat around a table in the middle of...
Reddit's road rules: trolling America's heartland, one startup at a time
13 strangers. 6 wheels. John McCain’s bus. A parade of startups among infinite cornfields in America’s heartland. 10 days, 2,000 miles, and a goal to promote open internet policies in the United States. A documentary crew filming every waking moment. Throw out your rules — these are Reddit’s Internet 2012 road rules.
True believers file into St. Louis’ “T-Rex” communal startup space: a gargantuan, brutal looking structure renovated with only the bare essentials like plastic...
Obama and Romney clash over Apple, Made in China
Tuesday night's feisty presidential debate covered largely familiar ground, as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney traded jabs over hot-button issues such as immigration, tax plans, and foreign policy. The discourse became more pointed toward the end, however, when moderator Candy Crowley confronted both candidates about the outsourcing of tech manufacturing jobs.
"iPad, the Macs, the iPhones, they are all manufactured in China," Crowley said, citing low labor costs as a primary driver. "How do you...
Why can't you vote online?
Elections in the United States aren't perfect. Between rare instances of voter fraud, attempts to make it harder for people to vote, voter intimidation, egregious manipulation of voting districts by major parties, and regularly low voter turnout, there's plenty of room for improvement — leading governments at all levels in the US federal system to examine alternative voting mechanisms that could alleviate these issues. In the age of the internet, an obvious solution for many is remote...
Beta-testing democracy: Reddit's plan to drop an open internet 'geek bomb' on lawmakers
The Verge is onboard Reddit's "Internet 2012 bus," which is driving between the presidential debate in Colorado to the vice-presidential debate in Kentucky. Stay tuned for more dispatches from the road, as Reddit and its allies gather and share stories about the open internet in America's heartland.
In one of the first stops on the Internet 2012 bus tour, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian spontaneously offered an idea to the public of Boulder, Colorado: "what if we chose a day to geek bomb...
The 'future of polling' on Microsoft's Election 2012 Xbox Live hub
Microsoft's Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live launched in late August, and since then, the company has been using it to collect data. That data, in aggregate and in specific subsets, will power "the future of polling" as well as "the future of TV," said Jose Pinero, senior director of marketing and public relations for Microsoft, in a phone interview with Polygon conducted yesterday.
The company also wants to use the data to engage with and galvanize its Xbox Live user base in an unprecedented...
Tumblr assembles a team to create live animated GIFs from the 2012 presidential debates
In a move sure to cause unprecedented levels of excitement among editors of The Verge, Tumblr has announced plans to pump out live GIF animations from the 2012 presidential debates. Tumblr says it's hired a "crack team of GIF artists" that will provide "instant animations of the best debate moments, from zingers, to gaffes, to awkward silences." To broadcast the GIFs to the world, Tumblr has built a special page called "Gifwich," and warns that following the page will flood user Dashboards...
Denver judge rules voters have no 'fundamental right' to a secret ballot
While many of us work under the assumption that our votes should be kept secret, a recent federal court ruling in Colorado challenges that common belief. As the Denver Post reports, on Friday a US district judge in Denver recently dismissed a lawsuit filed in response to counties printing ballots with identifying barcodes. Judge Christine Arguello ruled that voters don't have a "fundamental right" to a secret ballot, and thus dismissed the suit. Back in August the Aspen-based Citizen Center...
California launches online voting registration, sees surge in applicants
California this week became the 11th US state to offer online voting registration. Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced the move in a press release Wednesday, adding that the new system should make it easier to reach the 6.5 million eligible Californians who remain unregistered. The state's website went live on Wednesday, and within its first 12 hours, saw more than 3,000 new registrations.
To register online, California residents must verify their identity by entering their date of...
Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly team up to livestream political comedy special
Neither Jon Stewart nor Bill O'Reilly are shy when it comes to expressing their political opinions, and soon the pair will be debating live — and they're taking the fight straight to the internet. On October 6th the duo will be livestreaming an event called "O'Reilly v Stewart 2012: The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium," and as the name implies, it won't be the most serious of political debates. "O'Reilly and Stewart will take an entertaining and comedic approach to today's pressing...
Twitter's big night: Obama's DNC speech sets new record of 52,000 tweets per minute
Twitter has made its presence known on the political scene this election cycle, and tonight was the highlight of its journey so far. On the night that President Barack Obama formally accepted the Democratic party's nomination for his reelection, Twitter broke a few records for political events.
During the President's speech, the service saw about 52,000 tweets per minute, far beating Mitt Romney's previous record of just over 14,000 tweets per minute. In fact, both former President Clinton...
Web & Social
Hacker claims to have Mitt Romney's tax returns, demands $1 million in Bitcoin
Early today a hacker who claims to be affiliated with Anonymous posted documents to Pastebin with some startling claims: someone, the statement claimed, has copies of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney's tax returns. Mitt Romney has come under some scrutiny and criticism — mostly from Democrats — for releasing just two years of back tax returns. In the statement on Pastebin, the anonymous hacker claims to have copies from years before 2010.
Interestingly, the "hacker" described an...
RNC buys sponsored Twitter hashtag to ask 'are you better off'?
Earlier today the Republican National Committee purchased the trending topic (or hashtag) #areyoubetteroff. Asking the question "are you better off?" than you were four years ago is the RNC's first use of Twitter as an impromptu (and very unscientific way to poll the populace). It also appears to be the first time the RNC has purchased a trending topic, just days after the Romney campaign became the first official political campaign to do the same when it purchased #RomneyRyan2012 during R...
Democratic Party platform supports 'internet freedom,' sidesteps net neutrality
With the US Democratic National Convention underway, the party has released its 2012 platform, including positions on "internet freedom" — a term that's been used to mean anything from free online speech to anti-net neutrality provisions. Several Democratic representatives have urged their party to add pro-open internet positions, and Republicans already addressed the issue in their latest platform. With Republicans having defined online freedom as freedom from "legacy regulation," what do...
Republican National Convention draws four million tweets, crushing previous record
Twitter experienced an extraordinary jump in engagement during this year's Republican National Convention. Over four million total tweets discussing Mitt Romney's big night were sent out, which already amounts to a massive increase over 2008: that year, Twitter activity for both conventions combined topped out around 360,000.
Romney's peak: 14,355 tweets per minute
Adam Sharp, Twitter's head of government news and social innovation, appeared on CNN to parse out some of the numbers. The RNC's...
Democratic Party launches open source voter registration web app
The Democratic National Committee is doing its part to get people voting with a new open source web app that lets Americans register online. The app lets potential voters fill out a National Voter Registration Form on the web, which is then converted into a PDF that can be printed and submitted — and to make things a little easier the app also includes all of the necessary registration guidelines and information for each individual state. So if you live in a state that supports online...
President Obama's Reddit AMA reaches over 5 million pageviews
You're undoubtedly aware of President Obama's Reddit appearance Wednesday, wherein he became the first sitting POTUS to ever participate in an Ask Me Anything thread. Reddit nearly buckled for most of the time President Obama was answering questions, although it never went down completely.
Given that, it's not surprising to hear today that the AMA got 2.9 million page views during the live event, and, as of 12:00 PM ET, the thread had 5.2 million pageviews, with nearly 200,000 concurrent...
Reddit user says she didn't plant softball question for Obama during his AMA
President Barack Obama's half-hour "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit earned the president credibility with young digital natives and an affirmation that the president "gets the internet." Mitt Romney's purchase of a Twitter trending topic, announced the same day, seemed like astroturfing by contrast. But earlier today, a conspiracy theory surfaced on Reddit's front page that accused the president of planting a question in his supposedly uncensored digital town hall.
The question in dispute...
Party crasher: Obama brings down Reddit during Mitt Romney's big week
President Barack Obama's surprise appearance on Reddit could not have been better timed. As Mitt Romney and the Republicans engaged in the vestigial tradition of counting delegates, hoping their speeches would filter down to the electorate through the media, President Obama reached millions of people directly by answering questions on arguably the biggest social media site that could still be considered underground. On his MacBook, of course.
The president was only logged on for half an hour,...
Romney 2012 is first political campaign to buy Twitter trending topic
Hot on the heels of President Obama's Reddit AMA, The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Romney campaign will leverage a little bit of the internet, too: it has bought a national trending topic on Twitter for Thursday night. The Journal confirmed with the Romney campaign's digital director Zac Moffatt, and Twitter confirmed to us that this is the first official political campaign to buy a trending topic, which has been possible since December of 2010. Thursday night, the last night of...
Reddit has its biggest day ever thanks to President Obama's AMA
President Barack Obama showed up on Reddit today for an unannounced Ask Me Anything session at around 4PM. The post set a record for Reddit, with more than 200,000 concurrent visitors during the iAMA. That makes today Reddit's biggest day ever, general manager Erik Martin told The Verge over Gchat. "Chaos here," he said.
"Reddit" and "Barack Obama" quickly broke into Twitter's trending topics, and the story hit the blogosphere within minutes. Mainstream outlets like CBS and The Washington...
Ask President Obama anything on Reddit today at 4:30PM ET
Alexis Ohanian of Reddit teased a "really special AMA" (ask me anything) for today, and he certainly has delivered — President Barack Obama will be answering questions on Reddit for a half-hour today. The AMA begins at 4:30pm ET, and the president says he'll be around to answer questions for about 30 minutes. If you want to get your own question in there, head on over to Reddit now — the AMA thread is open for business.
Update: As for how this all came together, All Things D reports that...
Google wants to help you register to vote
Google's comprehensive 2012 election coverage will now include a tool to help citizens register to vote, the company revealed this morning in an announcement about new resources for voters. Google has partnered with the New York nonprofit TurboVote, which collects contact information from voters and then sends them registration forms, reminders about voting, and state-specific information about things like mail-in ballots. The option to register to vote is prominently featured on Google's...
Internet 2012: Reddit and Alexis Ohanian hit the campaign trail to fight for the future of freedom
As another presidential election year unfolds, a familiar tapestry of political conflict is revealed: Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and other candidates are gearing up to spar over the economy, health care, foreign policy, education, and other perennial political issues. But if Reddit and internet advocate Alexis Ohanian have their way, people won't just be talking about hot political topics, at least not in the context of the old buttoned-up ways of doing things. They'll be talking about the...
Facebook and CNN launch real-time 'Election Insights' for president and VP candidates
With the Republican National Convention kicking off today and only a few months until the presidential election, CNN has partnered with Facebook to present "real-time Election Insights." This data promises to reveal the number of people talking on Facebook about President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul at any given time. There are a number of different views available, including by state, age, and gender; there are also different time views ranging from the...
Mitt Romney turns to data-mining to locate potential wealthy donors
This year's presidential election has been marked by a dramatic increase of technology on the compaign trail as mobile apps, Xbox 360 hubs, and more are used to drive awareness and communicate with voters. The heavy tech push isn't party-specific: both Democrats and Republicans have put a lot of effort into establishing an online presence. According to the Associated Press, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has even taken a route that is usually reserved for companies looking to...
Amazon creates Presidential Election heat map based on political book purchases
Everyone from Microsoft to Twitter to YouTube has taken to providing their own unique spin on covering the election, and Amazon is no different. The company has released a "2012 Election Heat Map" that shows what kinds of political books Americans are buying. Amazon took its 250 top-selling political books and characterized each one as either red (Republican Party), blue (Democratic party), or neutral, and then determined where those books have been purchased and shipped in the last 30 days....
Will Democrats and Republicans commit to internet freedom?
Internet freedom is on track to be an important issue in the upcoming election in the wake of legislation like SOPA and PIPA, and both Democrats and Republicans will likely see fit to address it at their respective conventions. In a letter obtained by The Hill, representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Doris Matsui (D-CA), and Jared Polis (D-CO) urged the DNC to address the party's commitment to internet freedom.
The representatives suggest that the DNC should embrace the...
Microsoft's Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future
Microsoft wants to push election engagement forward by using its Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live as a proof-of-concept for the future of television and the future of polling. The 2012 presidential election may already be integrating technology in unprecedented ways, but the hub furthers that trend.
Microsoft hopes the hub will "show the world what interactive TV can be" and prove that "it's available now," said Jose Pinero, senior director of marketing and public relations for Microsoft, in a...
Obama campaign to start accepting text message donations
Barack Obama's reelection team is set to begin accepting donations by text message in a few days, marking the first time this tool has been used in campaigning since the Federal Election Commission approved it in June. According to Reuters, Obama is finalizing agreements with Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular, with an AT&T deal expected "in the near future." Republican candidate Romney — who also supported the FEC proposal — is likely to announce his own SMS donation system soon.
...
Xbox Live getting Presidential Election hub with live coverage, polls, and news
If beating up the presidential candidates wasn't enough to get you excited for the upcoming election, Microsoft has announced a new hub for Xbox Live that will let users follow the action from the comfort of their game console. The Election 2012 hub launches on August 27th, and will feature live coverage of the presidential debates as well as live feeds from both parties' national conventions. You'll be able to register to vote through Rock the Vote, participate in polls, and follow the...
Beat up Obama, Romney in 'Infinity Blade' creator's new political game
The next game from the creators of Infinity Blade will allow players to assume the role of a cartoon Barack Obama or Mitt Romney and beat up their opponent in a political debate using weapons, not words.
The iOS game Vote!!! awards players with a score that can be converted into votes which can be applied to either presidential candidate in a worldwide run for virtual presidency.
Developers Chair Entertainment teamed up with Rock the Vote and the Video Game Voters Network to release the...
Super PAC App for iPhone and iPad filters out the noise in political ads
Political advertisements contain finely-constructed verbiage meant to drive certain aspects of an individual or party while tactfully hiding others. The Super PAC App, created by a pair of former MIT students, hopes to drown out the noise and verify the facts by filtering the information with the help of "audio fingerprinting." Dan Siegel, one of the app's co-creators, explained to CNN that the app itself does not do the fact-checking, but cross-references the information with an audio...
YouTube launches Elections Hub, promises coverage of 'key moments' now through Election Day
YouTube today announced the Elections Hub, a portal that the video site describes as a "one-stop channel for key political moments" between now and the moment US voters head to the polls this November. The hub will offer live coverage of speeches from both the Democratic and Republican conventions over the next few weeks, and viewers will also be able to stream the Presidential/Vice Presidential debates starting in October. Further, Google is using Elections Hub as a venue for promoting its...
In online campaign, Romney focuses on Obama, both focus on the economy, and neither focuses much on citizens
With about three months to go until the 2012 US presidential election, the Pew Research Center has given us a look at how both major candidates are running their online campaigns. For two weeks in June, Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism gathered and analyzed everything Romney and Obama's campaigns posted on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and official sites or blogs. While the results show some interesting differences in campaign style (and a great deal of overall similarity), one of the...
'Mitt's VP' app beat by seven hours in announcing Romney's running mate
When it launched, the Mitt's VP app made one simple statement: it would provide the first official information on who presidential candidate Mitt Romney had picked as his running mate. By the time users received their push notifications, however, NBC and others had already announced Paul Ryan as the next potential VP, The Atlantic notes. The app was beat by over seven hours by leaked reports, which (obviously) turned out to be correct. It's the second time in a row that these "exclusive...
Twitter Political Index charts Obama and Romney's popularity in tweets
As the US election season heats up, Twitter has unveiled its own analytical tool: the Twitter Political Index. The Index checks for tweets mentioning Romney or Obama every evening, then weighs how positive or negative they are in aggregate and compares that number to the average positivity of all tweets. The resulting number describes this comparison, so that 34 next to Obama's name means that tweets mentioning his name or Twitter handle were more positive on average than 34 percent of the...
Mitt Romney to announce running mate on new iOS and Android app
As President Barack Obama announces his own app for the campaign trail, Republican contender Mitt Romney is hoping to attract users by offering a first look at his choice for Vice President. Mitt's VP is available on both iOS and Android, and from what we can tell, it's exactly what it sounds like: an app with push notifications that tells you when Romney announces his running mate and who he chooses. The app text promises the news will come to phones before it goes the press and "just about...
Culture
Obama for America iOS app launches in preparation for election season
US President Barack Obama is no stranger to social media and consumer tech, having joined services like Pinterest and Instagram and releasing an iPhone app in 2008 to help secure his position in the White House. The President's campaign team is back for another round this year with the new Obama for America iOS app, providing vital information to potential voters regarding policies, community activities, events, news, volunteer opportunities, and voting and registration details. While the...
Web & Social
Caching error gives user access to Mitt Romney's Storify account
Last weekend Andy Stettler signed into Storify as he always does, only to find that he wasn't logged into his account at all — instead he had access to the Storify account of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. According to Stettler, who works as the community engagement editor for The Lansdale Reporter, he was able to edit and delete posts, though he only stuck around long enough to take a few screenshots as proof of the odd occurrence. Storify co-founder Burt Herman has since said that...
YouTube reinstates Romney campaign ad after reviewing copyright claims
YouTube pulled a Mitt Romney campaign ad earlier this week due to copyright complaints, but after an internal review the ad is back online. BMG Rights Management had objected to the clip, which contained footage of President Barack Obama riffing on Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." According to Politico, the Romney campaign contacted YouTube Wednesday asserting that the clip constituted fair use under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and after a review YouTube determined it did not...
BMG bans Romney campaign ad from YouTube, apparently over Obama cover song
A Mitt Romney campaign video that features Barack Obama singing Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" has been pulled from YouTube at the request of the label. Public Knowledge found that the video had been taken down at the request of publisher BMG Rights Management, which manages the work of song co-writer Al Jackson, Jr. The Romney video juxtaposed Obama's performance (which is featured in many other YouTube videos) with text about his alleged ties to lobbyists and campaign donors. It's not a...
Google named 'official social platform' of the Republican National Convention
The US Republican and Democratic National Conventions may be primarily concerned with presidential candidates, but electoral politics aren't the only thing at stake. Every year, companies vie to be official event partners, and Google has just announced that it will be serving as the "official social platform and livestream provider" for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida this August. As part of the agreement, Google will be livestreaming speeches, and some Republican...
