YouTube unveils face-blurring tool

SAN FRANCISCO: Video website YouTube unveiled on Wednesday a way for users to automatically blur human faces in videos they upload, a feature that would help protect the identities of political dissidents, YouTube parent Google Inc said.
Once known more as a repository for fuzzy, home-made cat videos, YouTube has become a growing destination for slick, highly produced entertainment and serious news content. Earlier this week, a study by the Pew Research Centre’s Project for Excellence in Journalism said amateur “citizen journalism” footage from events such as the 2011 tsunami in Japan were some of the most-watched clips on YouTube.
In recent months YouTube has hosted dozens of videos from the rebellion in Syria, often uploaded by rebels seeking to publicize their struggle. But the videos have also revealed the identity of rebel fighters.
“Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your eight-year-old’s basketball game without broadcasting the children’s faces to the world, our face blurring technology is a first step towards providing visual anonymity for video on YouTube,” YouTube said in a blog post Wednesday.
The feature also allows for the original copy of the uploaded video to be deleted. Videos may also be kept private.
“YouTube is proud to be a destination where people worldwide come to share their stories, including activists,” YouTube said.

Promise of Seraiki province to be fulfilled: Gilani

MULTAN: Former prime minister and PPP Senior Vice Chairman Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday that his party believed that deprivations of the people would end with the establishment of a Seraiki province.
He said this in a meetings with Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi and PPP South Punjab delegation led by its president Federal Minister for Textiles Makhdoom Shahabuddin who called on him at Gilani house in Multan.
Seraiki province was a genuine demand of 50 million people of the area and the PPP would soon fulfill its promise in establishing a new province, Gilani said.
He recalled that President Asif Ali Zardari had announced setting up Seraiki Bank during his last visit to Multan. The president has recently asked the National Assembly speaker to constitute a commission to propose demarcation of and allocation of parliamentary seats and resources to the proposed two new provinces.