new Delhi: Google removed thousands of YouTube channels last month, including 7,599 channels, 1 AdSense account and 3 Blogger blogs, as part of an ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. These YouTube channels and blogs mostly upload spammy content in Chinese language about music, entertainment and lifestyle.
“A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and US foreign affairs,” the company said. The company also terminated three YouTube channels that shared sensationalized content in Chinese about the war in Ukraine and relations between mainland China and Taiwan. (Also Read:
The company also took down 515 YouTube channels as part of the investigation into a coordinated influence operation involving Azerbaijan and 57 YouTube channels in Brazil.
“We terminated 1 AdSense account and blocked 1 domain from appearing on Google News surfaces as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations involving China,” Google said.
Google-owned YouTube said last month that it removed over 1.7 million videos in India for violating its Community Guidelines in its third quarter (Q3) report. In the same period, the streaming platform removed more than 5.6 million videos globally for violating its community guidelines.
According to the Community Guidelines Enforcement report, more than 94 percent of these videos were previously flagged by machines instead of humans.