Google Shuts Down Coordinated YouTube Campaigns From Russia, Iran, China

<p class&equals;"drop-cap" data-block-key&equals;"6qdn0">Google released its Threat Analysis Bulletin for the month of October&period; This bulletin includes coordinated influence operation campaigns that were removed from Google&&num;8217&semi;s platforms &&num;8212&semi; primarily YouTube &&num;8212&semi; in the fourth quarter of 2023&period; The campaigns are mainly from nation states looking to spread propaganda to promote their own governments or against other nations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"drop-cap" data-block-key&equals;"6qdn0">This bulletin was last updated by Google on December 15&comma; 2023&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 data-block-key&equals;"93gi6">October<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"4ggre">We terminated 8 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran&period; The campaign was sharing content in Hindi and Arabic with anti-Israel narratives&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"2tva5">We terminated 14 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran&period; The campaign was sharing content in Hindi and Arabic that was supportive of the government of Iran&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"37rvc">We terminated 355 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia&period; 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&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"d3p2v">We terminated 13 YouTube channels and 1 Blogger blog as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia&period; The campaign was sharing content in English that was critical of Ukraine and the West&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"os25">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&period; The campaign was linked to state-funded media and was sharing content in English&comma; Italian&comma; Spanish and Polish that was supportive of Russia&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"85jv0">We terminated 57 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia&period; The campaign was sharing content in Russian&comma; Azerbaijani and Turkish that was supportive of Azerbaijani interests in the Nagorno-Karabakh region&comma; and critical of Russia and Armenia&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"drmka">We terminated 41 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Ukraine&period; 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&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"dcfe1">We terminated 90 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Azerbaijan&period; The campaign was sharing content in Azerbaijani that was supportive of Azerbaijan and critical of Armenia and critics of the Azerbaijani government&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"77se6">We terminated 21 YouTube channels and disabled 8 AdSense Accounts as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Ethiopia&period; The campaign was sharing content in Amharic related to political topics in Ethiopia&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"4it37">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&period; The campaign was sharing content in Arabic about Sudanese news and politics&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"635ck">We terminated 317 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Turkey&period; The campaign was sharing content in Turkish that was supportive of a Turkish political party&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li data-block-key&equals;"1va4e">We terminated 3&comma;785 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to the People’s Republic of China &lpar;PRC&rpar;&period; The coordinated inauthentic network mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music&comma; entertainment and lifestyle&period; A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U&period;S&period; foreign affairs&period; These findings are consistent with our previous reports&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;