U.K. Election
How YouTube Lets Parties Skirt Election Ad Rules
Online video is helping parties sidestep Britain's decades-old restrictions
This article is for subscribers only.
Since the advent of television, candidates and parties standing in British parliamentary elections have been barred from buying TV time to sway voters. YouTube is changing that.
The video-sharing website and its peers allow candidates and parties to sidestep decades-old restrictions on broadcast advertising. In advance of the May 7 election, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other sites have been jammed with videos -- ranging from cheeky to turgid -- seeking to galvanize support.