Google announced on Monday that it had removed 11,000 YouTube channels and profit accounts related to propaganda activities in countries such as China and Russia in the second quarter of this year. The majority of these removed channels were related to the CCP, with over 7,700 channels taken down. This action was aimed at countering foreign governments’ systematic dissemination of political content, waging information warfare, and attempting to influence global public opinion.
The Threat Analysis Group at Google pointed out that these foreign propaganda activities mainly distributed content in Chinese and English to promote the People’s Republic of China, support President Xi Jinping, and comment on U.S. foreign policy. More than 2,000 channels related to Russia were among those removed, covering various languages and mainly supporting Russia while criticizing Ukraine, NATO, and other Western countries.
Accounts associated with Russian state-owned media outlet RT (Russia Today) were among those taken down, including YouTube channels, blogs, and advertising accounts. RT has been accused of paying prominent conservative opinion leaders before the 2024 U.S. presidential election to post supportive content on social media.
In May of this year, Google removed 20 YouTube channels, 4 advertising accounts, and 1 blog related to RT. YouTube had blocked RT channels since March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
In its second-quarter report, Google also mentioned removing accounts related to Iran, Turkey, Israel, Romania, Ghana, and Azerbaijan. These accounts were involved in launching information warfare against local political opponents. Some accounts were specifically created to produce content related to international conflicts like the Israel-Palestine conflict, spreading views supporting or criticizing both sides to influence public perceptions of war.
Previously, Google had removed over 23,000 accounts in the first quarter. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also announced last week that it had deleted around 10 million accounts impersonating large content creators in the first half of 2025 to combat “junk content” and enhance the platform’s content quality and user experience.
(Reference to CNBC’s report)