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Google has terminated over 2,500 YouTube channels in Q2 as part of its ongoing investigations into “coordinated influence operations” linked to China, according to the company’s Threat Analysis Group bulletin.
It had terminated 186 YouTube channels in April, 1,098 YouTube channels in May and 1,312 YouTube channels in June.
“These channels mostly uploaded spammy, non-political content, but a small subset posted political content, primarily in Chinese, similar to the findings in a recent Graphika report, including content related to the US response to Covid-19,” Google said.
The Graphika report referred by Google stated that a pro-Chinese cross-platform political spam network had remerged in 2020. The network dubbed “Spamouflage Dragon” is reactivating its accounts to post political spam messages about various issues, including Hong Kong politics, Chinese regime critics and the Chinese response to Covid-19.
“We received leads from Graphika that supported us in this investigation,” Google said.
It had also removed other YouTube and AdSense accounts from Russia and Iran that engaged in influence operations based on findings by Facebook, Graphika and Fireeye.
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