As part of its investigation into coordinated influence operations, Google has purged thousands of YouTube channels in China, Russia, and Brazil.
As part of its ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China, the tech giant shut down 5,197 YouTube channels and 17 Blogger blogs.
“These channels and blogs mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment, and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and US foreign affairs,” the company said in a blog post.
As part of its investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia, Google also shut down 718 YouTube channels.
“The campaign was linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin and critical of Ukraine and the West,” said the company.
It shut down 76 YouTube channels in Brazil where the campaign shared content in Brazilian Portuguese in support of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
“We terminated 8 YouTube channels and blocked 2 domains from eligibility to appear on Google News surfaces and Discover as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia,” said Google.
It also removed 30 YouTube channels and 5 AdSense accounts linked to a Russian consulting firm, as well as terminating 27 YouTube channels in Russia for sharing content supportive of Russia and critical of Western Europe and Ukraine.
