First YouTube space facility in Middle East region opens in Dubai
Dubai: Google-owned video platform YouTube opened a "YouTube Space" in Dubai, the first-of-its-kind in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Located at Dubai Studio City, the YouTube facility aims "to support the growing creator community in the MENA region by giving them access to a state-of-the-art production space," Xinhua cited state news agency WAM as saying.
The space, which is the tenth in the world, is dedicated to YouTube content creators who would have free access to high-end audio, visual and editing equipment in addition to training programmes, workshops and courses.
More than 440,000 creators have visited the nine YouTube Space facilities around the world since the programme was first launched in 2012, said David Ripert, Head of YouTube Spaces in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
"Creators are the heartbeat of YouTube and supporting them has long been one of our most important priorities," Ripert was quoted as saying.
"As a platform, YouTube provides a blank canvas for creative expression and the Space will be one of the tools creators use to tell their own stories," Ripert noted.
The MENA region has more than 200 YouTube channels with over a million subscribers, and over 30,000 channels are subscribed by more than 10,000 users, Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer of YouTube, was quoted as saying.
The Arab world has experienced a 160-per cent increase in the number of channels uploaded from MENA countries in the past three years.
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Edited photo of Actor Prakash Raj taking dip at Maha Kumbh Mela goes viral, complaint filed
Bengaluru: Actor Prakash Raj on Tuesday clarified that a photo of him taking a holy dip at the Maha Kumbh Mela, which is doing rounds across social media platforms, was fake. The multilingual actor has filed a police complaint against the miscreants in this regard.
The digitally manipulated image was posted by an account named Prashant Sambaragi, captioned: "Actor Prakash Raj at the Kumbh Mela. He bathed in the Triveni Sangam. Let's hope that his sins are washed away." The image also bizarrely showed the actor’s hand blending into an artificial design, suggesting the use of AI editing.
Taking to ‘X,’ actor Prakash Raj clarified that it was fake news. He stated, "Fake news. The job of the cowardly army of the 'False King' is to spread fake news and defile even their holy worship. A police complaint has been filed. Let's see what they do in the courtroom."
ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿ
— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) January 28, 2025
“ಸುಳ್ಳ ರಾಜ” ನ ಹೇಡಿಗಳ ಸೈನ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ .. ಅವರ ಪವಿತ್ರ ಪೂಜೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿ ಹಬ್ಬಿಸಿ ಹೊಲಸು ಮಾಡುವುದೇ ಕೆಲಸ .. police complaint ದಾಖಲಾಗಿದೆ .. ಕೋರ್ಟಿನ ಕಟಕಟೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಏನು ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೋ ನೋಡೋಣ 😊 #justasking pic.twitter.com/S6ySeyFKmh
