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Google pulls 2,500 China-linked YouTube channels over disinformation on video-sharing platform
- Alphabet-owned Google says the channels were removed ‘as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China’
- The channels generally posted ‘spammy, non-political content’, but a small subset touched on politics
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Google says it has deleted more than 2,500 YouTube channels tied to China as part of its effort to weed out disinformation on the video-sharing platform.
The Alphabet-owned company said the channels were removed between April and June “as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China”.
The channels generally posted “spammy, non-political content,” but a small subset touched on politics, the company said in a quarterly bulletin on disinformation operations.
Google did not identify the specific channels and provided few other details, except to link the videos to similar activity spotted by Twitter and to a disinformation campaign identified in April by social media analytics company Graphika.
The Chinese Embassy in the US did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Beijing has in the past denied allegations of spreading disinformation.
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