YouTube removes nearly 11,000 propaganda videos, primarily from China and Russia

[midian182]

What just happened? YouTube isn't slowing down when it comes to removing propaganda from the platform. In the second quarter alone, the Google-owned firm removed almost 11,000 videos that fall into this category from China, Russia, and elsewhere.

An update from Google's Threat Analysis Group reveals that of the nearly 11,000 YouTube channels removed in Q2, more than 7,700 of them were linked to state-sponsored campaigns from China.

The campaigns shared content in English and Chinese that was supportive of China and critical of the Philippines. They also voiced support for President Xi Jinping and covered US foreign affairs.

While Chinese content made up the majority of removed channels, over 2,000 of them were promoting Russian propaganda. As we've seen in the past, these campaigns are created in multiple languages, support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and are critical of Ukraine, NATO, and the West.

Google also terminated YouTube channels, Ads accounts, and a blog linked to Russian state-controlled media outlet RT. The outlet was blocked by Western social media companies in 2022, though Google has been fighting against RT misinformation for years, long before the war began.

In addition to China and Russia, Google removed channels that were sharing content in Turkish that was supportive of the Turkish Victory Party, and several linked to Iran that were supportive of the country's government and Palestine while being critical of Israel. There were also campaigns linked to Azerbaijan, Israel, Romania, and Ghana.

In May 2022, YouTube said it had removed more than 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels related to the war in Ukraine, often due to the invasion being referred to as a "liberation mission." The content went against the company's major violent events policy, which applies to the denial of events such as the Holocaust and Sandy Hook.

Google suspended all advertising in Russia, including on YouTube, following the invasion. It also refused to remove content relating to the war that Russia deemed illegal, which led to Google News being banned in the country.

In October last year, Russia hit Google with a fine of two undecillion rubles over YouTube blocking access to Russian channels. That was about $20.5 decillion at the time, quite a lot more than the estimated global GDP of around $100 trillion.

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YouTube removes nearly 11,000 propaganda videos, primarily from China and Russia

 

[GeoffreyA]

Good job. Now, did YouTube remove the US propaganda videos too, or those promoting American and Western hegemony? Did it also remove those trying to sweep Israel's destruction of the Gaza Strip under the carpet?

 

[torvuswalds]

How about removing literal p0rn from the site? Or people abusing the community guidelines to show full nudity?

 

[Beerfloat]

Good job. Now, did YouTube remove the US propaganda videos too, or those promoting American and Western hegemony? Did it also remove those trying to sweep Israel's destruction of the Gaza Strip under the carpet?

Why would they?

 

[Squid Surprise]

Good job. Now, did YouTube remove the US propaganda videos too, or those promoting American and Western hegemony? Did it also remove those trying to sweep Israel's destruction of the Gaza Strip under the carpet?

How about the propaganda that the people of Gaza are innocent and didn’t start the hostilities in the first place?

 

[GeoffreyA]

Why would they?

Exactly.

 

[GeoffreyA]

How about the propaganda that the people of Gaza are innocent and didn’t start the hostilities in the first place?

Did the entire population of Gaza take part in the Oct. 7 attack?

 

[umeng2002]

YouTube doing this at the request of the US government is a violation of the 1st Amendment. I hope they naturally didn't want these video on the platform. Even SCOTUS has ruled that actors hired by the government cannot circumvent the protections afforded by the Constitution.

 

[BogdanR]

Cool. Now do the same with Flat Earth and all the other conspiracies.
While at it, there’s also a lot of antisemitic, Holocaust denial and outright fascist content as well.
YouTube are not the only ones guilty of crap like this.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Did the entire population of Gaza take part in the Oct. 7 attack?

Did the entire nation of Israel strike back?

 

[toooooot]

And a billion comments that did not say nice things about people who cannot be spoken of in a negative way.

 

[VitalyT]

Right, leave UN, US and Ukraine's propaganda only, 'cos that's objective. F-ng hypocrites.

 

[umeng2002]

Sticks and stones.

 

[bclaymiles]

YouTube doing this at the request of the US government is a violation of the 1st Amendment. I hope they naturally didn't want these video on the platform. Even SCOTUS has ruled that actors hired by the government cannot circumvent the protections afforded by the Constitution.

Nowhere in the article does it say that the government requested them to do so. So right there's a red herring.

This also falls into the 'it's a private company, they can do what they want' realm. They aren't obligated to host anything and everything, that's why they have Terms of Service, and take down stuff all the time.

 

[maxxcool7421]

Now remove all the hate-churches, and nazi posts from the alt right

 

[Aus spot]

Like others have touched on, and excluding google being a private company, but this is a clear case of one sided destruction of free speech. (Not that china/Russia have such a concept these days).

I’ve seen many entertaining videos of Ukraine defeating Russia on the battlefield, so many you would swear Ukraine was winning the entire war. All propaganda for one side that google deems more important than the other side.

This action clearly makes many people happy, but freedom and freedom of speech in censorship does not exist. We saw the lies, sometimes well intentioned during COVID, When they come for things you value it will be too late to stop them.

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

Perhaps you'll find Youtube removing videos that's not making them money or making the wrong people money.

 

[mailpup]

Perhaps you'll find Youtube removing videos that's not making them money or making the wrong people money.

They could, I suppose, but if money is the issue, they can also just demonitize the videos which they do all the time. But they could also remove them. They do that all the time too.

 

[Puiu]

Just 11k? that's not even a drop in the bucket.

 

[maroon1]

Good job. Now, did YouTube remove the US propaganda videos too, or those promoting American and Western hegemony? Did it also remove those trying to sweep Israel's destruction of the Gaza Strip under the carpet?

YouTube is an American platform. Removing their enemies' propaganda is what any normal country would do. Russia and Iran remove their enemies' 'propaganda,' not their own

Right, leave UN, US and Ukraine's propaganda only, 'cos that's objective. F-ng hypocrites.

Russia, China, and Iran remove their enemies' propaganda, not their own. But if Western countries do the same, then they’re considered hypocrites? Lol.


Funny how people demand that Western countries be neutral, unbiased, and fair, but nobody makes the same demands of Russia, Muslim countries, or China, even though these countries have much more control over the media