Google released its Threat Analysis Bulletin for the month of October. This bulletin includes coordinated influence operation campaigns that were removed from Google’s platforms — primarily YouTube — in the fourth quarter of 2023. The campaigns are mainly from nation states looking to spread propaganda to promote their own governments or against other nations.
This bulletin was last updated by Google on December 15, 2023.
October
- We terminated 8 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran. The campaign was sharing content in Hindi and Arabic with anti-Israel narratives.
- We terminated 14 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran. The campaign was sharing content in Hindi and Arabic that was supportive of the government of Iran.
- We terminated 355 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to a Russian consulting firm and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of Russia and critical of Ukraine and the West.
- We terminated 13 YouTube channels and 1 Blogger blog as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was sharing content in English that was critical of Ukraine and the West.
- We terminated 6 YouTube channels and 1 Ads account and blocked 4 domains from eligibility to appear on Google News surfaces and Discover as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to state-funded media and was sharing content in English, Italian, Spanish and Polish that was supportive of Russia.
- We terminated 57 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was sharing content in Russian, Azerbaijani and Turkish that was supportive of Azerbaijani interests in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and critical of Russia and Armenia.
- We terminated 41 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Ukraine. The campaign was linked to the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of Russia and critical of the West.
- We terminated 90 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Azerbaijan. The campaign was sharing content in Azerbaijani that was supportive of Azerbaijan and critical of Armenia and critics of the Azerbaijani government.
- We terminated 21 YouTube channels and disabled 8 AdSense Accounts as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Ethiopia. The campaign was sharing content in Amharic related to political topics in Ethiopia.
- We terminated 40 YouTube channels and blocked 1 domain from eligibility to appear on Google News surfaces and Discover as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Sudan. The campaign was sharing content in Arabic about Sudanese news and politics.
- We terminated 317 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Turkey. The campaign was sharing content in Turkish that was supportive of a Turkish political party.
- We terminated 3,785 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The coordinated inauthentic network mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U.S. foreign affairs. These findings are consistent with our previous reports.
