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Tag: youtube

  • Amid family squabbles, Peter Okoye unveils solo YouTube channel

    Amidst the rumors of a possible split, Peter Okoye also known as Mr P has further triggered suspicions by unveiling his personal Youtube channel which was created a year ago (around the same time the brothers had their public squabble).

     

    Though no one can point to a major rift in 2017, but their suggestive Instagram posts shows that another feud may be waiting to happen between Peter and Paul Okoye.

     

    He made this known in a post on Instagram . In his words:“Had my VEVO channel for over a year and half and I’ve never put it up so be among the first to be notified with some cool videos from the Koolest Dude,” he wrote.

     

    “Pls feel free to subscribe to my vevo channel MrPVEVO.

     

    “Thanks so much #MrP #KoolestDude #coolitdown Cool it downloading.”

     

     

    Recall that in 2016, when the pop group had a rift, Peter released solo projects as Mr P while Paul did the same as Rude Boy.

     

     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BZT4O6mgSyY/?taken-by=peterpsquare

    READ ALSO:Sad! Psquare cancels tour over internal rift

     

  • YouTube Video Editor, Photos Slideshows to be discontinued in September

    YouTube on Thursday announced that its Video Editor and Photo slideshows tools are being retired on September 20.

    Not all editing features are being removed however – creators will still be able to use the Enhancements like trimming, blurring, and filters.

    The company cites limited usage of the two features as the reason for the discontinuation.

    Making the announcement on a Google Product Forum page, Marissa, a community manager, said, “We’ve seen limited usage of these features, so we’re retiring them to focus our efforts on building new tools and improving on other existing features.”

    YouTube creators that still have projects in the Video Editor or Photo slideshow section will need to finalize them before September 20, or they will lose the projects. Videos already published with Video Editor or Photos slideshows will be unaffected. Those that want to download their videos from the Video Editor will be able to do so in 720p resolution, or, they can use Google Takeout to get them in original quality.

    As we mentioned, not all editing is disappearing from the YouTube platform – a boon for amateur users or those that want to make minor adjustments without re-uploading an entire video again.

    Creators will be able to continue to utilize the Enhancements feature, which can be found in the Video Manager section. Enhancements allows for edits like trimming, blurring, and filters.

    Google is pointing to the innumerable free and paid third-party editing tools that creators can utilize in place of its Video Editor and Photos slideshow features.

    It is pointing to the Creator Community and Creator Hub for more information.

     

  • ‘Gangnam Style’ dethroned as most viewed Youtube video

    ‘Gangnam Style’ dethroned as most viewed Youtube video

    Gangnam style a global hit song by South Korea’s Psy, has been dethroned from its position as the most-watched video on YouTube.

     

    The tune responsible for disrobing ‘Gangnam Style’ of its 5-year reign on the title is Wiz Khalifa’s ‘See You Again’ featuring Charlie Puth.

     

    ‘See You Again’ was written for the 7th episode of action flick, ‘Fast and Furious’, as a praise to Paul Walker, one of the lead actors of the franchise who died in a car accident.

     

    Amazingly ‘See You Again’ has become one of the most frequently requested pop songs, especially at funerals in the UK, earning 1 billion views in its first six months of release.

     

    The new record-holding video has now been streamed over 2,895,373,709 times, overtaking Psy’s current count of 2,894,426,475 views.

     

    ‘See You Again’ was the best-selling song in 2015, earning nominations at both the Grammys and the Oscars.

     

    The top ten most watched video of all time on YouTube

     

    Wiz Khalifa (See You Again ft Charlie Puth)

     

    Psy (Gangnam Style)

     

    Justin Bieber (Sorry)

     

    Mark Ronson (Uptown Funk ft Bruno Mars)

     

    Luis Fonsi (Despacito ft Daddy Yankee)

     

    Taylor Swift (Shake It Off)

     

    Enrique Iglesias (Bailando)

     

    Maroon 5 (Sugar)

     

    Katy Perry (Roar)

     

    Taylor Swift (Blank Space)

  • Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube form grand alliance

    A host of Internet tech giants have teamed up to form a grand alliance known as Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism with the aim to help make their hosted consumer services hostile to terrorists and violent extremists.

    The spread of terrorism and violent extremism has become a pressing global problem and a critical challenge for all.

    “We take these issues very seriously, and each of our companies have developed policies and removal practices that enable us to take a hard line against terrorist or violent extremist content on our hosted consumer services.

    “We believe that by working together, sharing the best technological and operational elements of our individual efforts, we can have a greater impact on the threat of terrorist content online,” a statement released by the forum of the tech giants read.

    The new forum builds on initiatives including the EU Internet Forum and the Shared Industry Hash Database; discussions with the UK and other governments; and the conclusions of the recent G7 and European Council meetings.

    The forum said the scope of its work will evolve over time as there would be need for it to be responsive to the ever-evolving terrorist and extremist tactics.

    It said, initially, the scope would include technological solutions that will involve the tech firms working together to refine and improve existing joint technical work such as the Shared Industry Hash Database; exchange best practices as well as develop and implement new content detection and classification techniques using machine learning; and define standard transparency reporting methods for terrorist content removals.

    Also, the grand alliance said it will adopt knowledge-sharing in its modus operandi by working with counter-terrorism experts including governments, civil society groups, academics and other companies to engage in shared learning about terrorism, and through a joint partnership with the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED) and the ICT4Peace Initiative, it will establish a broad knowledge-sharing network to engage with smaller companies, develop best practices and counter-speech.

     

     

    Source

     

  • Wizkid breaks record with ‘Come closer’

    Nigerian multiple award winning singer, Ayodeji Ibrahim a.k.a Wizkid has added another feather to his cap. The talented artiste latest music video,’ Come Closer’ directed by Daps is now his most viewed music video ever.

    Amazingly, the video got its first million views just 24 hours after it dropped, despite Drake not featuring in it. At the time of this report, the video has 20,978,924 YouTube views .

     

    In 2016, Wizkid achieved international recognition following his collaboration with Drake on the global hit, “One Dance”, which reached number one in 15 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. In addition to his solo work, Wizkid has collaborated with several other artists and was featured on the hits “Girl” (with Bracket), “Fine Lady” (with Lynxxx), “Sexy Mama” (with Iyanya), “Slow Down” (with R2Bees), “The Matter” (with Maleek Berry), “Pull Over” (with KCee) and “Bad Girl” (with Jesse Jagz).

     

     

    Following the release of his second studio album and expiration of his 5-year recording contract, Wizkid left E.M.E. On 1 March 2017, Billboard magazine reported that Wizkid signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records.The deal was first reported by several media outlets in September 2016.The chairman and CEO of RCA Records, Peter Edge, somewhat confirmed the signing while speaking to Music Business Worldwide in January 2017.

     

  • London terror attack: Internet must be regulated to stop terrorism – May

    London terror attack: Internet must be regulated to stop terrorism – May

    Prime Minister Theresa May has called for closer regulation of the internet following a deadly terror attack in London.

    At least seven people were killed in a short but violent assault that unfolded late Saturday night in the heart of the capital, the third such attack to hit Britain this year.

    May said on Sunday that a new approach to tackling extremism is required, including changes that would deny terrorists and extremist sympathizers digital tools used to communicate and plan attacks.

    “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed,” May said. “Yet that is precisely what the internet and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide.”

    “We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning,” she continued. “We need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online.”

    May’s call for new internet regulations was part of a larger strategy to combat terror, including what she described as “far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.”

    The attack comes as tech giants come under increased pressure in Europe over their policing of violent and hate speech.

    Europe’s top regulator released data last week that showed that Twitter has failed to take down a majority of hate speech posts after they had been flagged. Facebook and YouTube fared better, removing 66% of reported hate speech.

    In the U.K., a parliamentary committee report published last month alleged that social media firms have prioritized profit over user safety by continuing to host unlawful content. The report also called for “meaningful fines” if the companies do not quickly improve.

    “The biggest and richest social media companies are shamefully far from taking sufficient action to tackle illegal and dangerous content,” the report said. “Given their immense size, resources and global reach, it is completely irresponsible of them to fail to abide by the law.”

    Forty-eight people were injured in Saturday’s attack on London Bridge and Borough Market. Police officers pursued and shot dead three attackers within eight minutes of the first emergency call, London police said.

     

     

    CNN

     

  • Social media firms have increased removal of Hate Speech, says EU

    Social media firms have increased removal of Hate Speech, says EU

    Social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube have stepped up both the speed and number of removals of hate speech on their platforms in response to pressure from the European Union to do more to tackle the issue, according to the results of an EU evaluation.

    Facebook won particular praise for reviewing most complaints within a 24-hour target timeframe set down in a code of conduct agreed in December by the European Commission, Facebook, Microsoft , Twitter and YouTube.

    Calling the results “encouraging” for the Commission’s push for self-regulation, Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said the proportion of offending items taken down had doubled and action was being taken more quickly than when the EU checked six months ago.

    “This … shows that a self-regulatory approach can work, if all actors do their part. At the same time, companies … need to make further progress to deliver on all the commitments,” Jourova said in a statement, adding that firms should provide more feedback to people who brought abuses to their attention.

    Facebook scored highly on this, Twitter and YouTube less so.

    The voluntary code of conduct obliges firms to take action in Europe within 24 hours, following rising concerns about the proliferation of racist and xenophobic content on social media triggered by the refugee crisis and attacks in Western Europe.

    This included removing or disabling access to the content if necessary, better cooperation with civil society organizations and the promotion of “counter-narratives” to hate speech.

    Facebook assessed notifications of hateful content in less than 24 hours in 58 percent of cases, up from 50 percent in December, according to the report.

    Twitter also sped up its dealing with notifications, reviewing 39 percent of them in less than 24 hours, as opposed to 23.5 percent in December, when the Commission first reviewed the companies’ progress and warned them they were being too slow.

    YouTube, on the other hand, slowed down, reviewing 42.6 percent of notifications in less than 24 hours, down from 60.8 percent in December, the results showed.

    “IT companies have all been improving time and response to notifications on manifest illegal hate speech,” Jourova said at a meeting of the EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance on Wednesday.

    “There are differences among the companies … but we can objectively say that all have improved.”

    All the companies significantly increased the number of removals. Overall, content was removed in 59.2 percent of cases, more than double the rate in December which was 28.2 percent.

    The proliferation of hate speech on social media has increased pressure on the companies to remove the content swiftly as they face the prospect of legislation at both EU and national level.

    Last week EU ministers approved plans to force social networks to take measures to block videos with hateful content while the German government approved a plan in April to fine companies up to EUR 50 million if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly.

    The most common ground of hate speech the Commission identified was xenophobia, including expressions of hatred against migrants and refugees, together with anti-Muslim hatred, followed by ethnic origin.

    The spread of fake news and racist content has taken on more urgency in Germany after the arrival of about a million migrants over the last two years.

  • Google launches servers in Cuba to speed up YouTube

    Google launches servers in Cuba to speed up YouTube

    Google has launched its servers in Cuba, meaning the country will now store Google contents locally, which will see Cubans who use Google services in the country notice contents load much faster.

    Google and the state-run telecom company Etecsa inked a deal in December to provide Cuban users access to the Google Global Cache (GGC). This network caches popular Google content, like YouTube videos and Google searches, for faster delivery to people’s phones and computers.

    According to a CNNtech report, When someone in Cuba watches a YouTube video for the first time, that content has to travel through undersea cables from servers in another country. But once it gets to Cuba, it will now be stored on local servers, and the next person who wants to watch it will have a noticeably faster load time.

    According to the report, Internet access in Cuba is limited and expensive, and some estimates say as little as 5% of people have internet at home. In order to surf the web, Cubans often congregate at cafes, hotels, and other public areas that have WiFi.

    According to a 2016 report from Freedom House, outdated infrastructure, government regulation, and the cost prevent widespread access. “Despite modest steps to increase internet access, Cuba remains one of the world’s most repressive environments for information and communication technologies,” the report said.

    However, it is slowly becoming more accessible.

    Emily Parker wrote the book “Now I Know Who My Comrades Are,” about internet activism in Cuba and other countries. She says the internet could pose a threat to the Cuban government’s control over information.

    “Google’s entry signals the Cuban government’s understanding that the Internet is necessary for economic development,” Parker said.

    Last year, Google partnered with a local artist known as Kcho to open a technology centre that provides free, faster internet to the public.

    Google’s servers won’t bring internet to more people, but those who already have the internet will see faster load times for Google services.

    Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at internet performance company Dyn, noticed the GGC nodes activate on Wednesday for Google Search. He said some people are reporting that they aren’t yet being directed to the Cuban GGC for YouTube, but it should happen soon.

    “It is a milestone, as this is the first time an outside internet company has hosted anything in Cuba,” Madory said.