In Three Months, Google Deleted China-Linked YouTube Channels To Combat Disinformation

05/08/2020

Misinformation, disinformation and malinformation happen all the time on the web. And YouTube is just one of the many platforms that struggle to contain their spread.

Google said that it has removed more than 2,500 YouTube channels tied to China, as part of its effort to stop fake information from making its video-sharing platform its breeding ground.

In a blog post, the Alphabet-owned company said the thousands of channels were removed between April and June “as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China.“

But that doesn't mean that YouTube is removing anything it sees that is Chinese. Google said that the channels it removed had generally posted “spammy, non-political content,” with a smaller subset that did contained politics but only to a certain limit.

The company however, didn't identify any specific channels or provided other details, except to the links to similar activities previously spotted and shared on Twitter, as well as the disinformation campaign identified back in April by social media analytics company Graphika.

TikTok, YouTube

The initiative from Google comes as tensions between the U.S. and China over technology and social media rise ahead of the U.S. general election.

Earlier, the White House stated that it was stepping up its efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks, to even said that Chinese Tencent's WeChat and ByteDance-owned TikTok are “significant threats.”

The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, but Beijing has in the past for numerous times denied allegations of spreading disinformation.

Read: The U.S. And Microsoft, Against China: The Fight To Own And Control TikTok