In a surprising turn of events, Google has terminated around 11,000 YouTube channels in the second quarter of 2025 as part of its investigation into coordinated influence operations.
The channels that were banned from the streaming service were posting content that might have originated from coordinated networks of hostile state operations and were influencing users’ views on geopolitical issues.
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According to the official statement in the Threat Analysis Group (TAG), it was stated that these channels uploaded content in Chinese and English regarding China and US foreign affairs.
This is not the first time that Google has taken a huge step in resolving foreign affairs conflicts, as May saw over 3,500 channels being terminated from YouTube as a part of its investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China.
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Google also aimed to destroy the coordinated influence operations linked to other countries like Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ghana, Israel, and Romania.
These campaigns aimed to target political opponents and raised sensitive regional issues that might influence or brainwash a normal viewer’s mind.
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In one such example, 457 YouTube channels originated from Azerbaijan and promoted pro-government narratives, hence attacking domestic critics.
The termination not only remains on YouTube but also Ads, Blogger, Google News, and AdSense. It remains to be seen how this powerful step further affects the overall misleading information trap.
