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Search engine giant Google on Sunday said it has terminated 7,599 YouTube channels, an AdSense account and three Blogger blogs as part of its ongoing investigation into ‘coordinated influence operations’ linked to China.
In a post on Google’s Threat Analysis Group website, the technology behemoth said the blacklisted channels and blogs uploaded spam 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”, it added.
Google also said it terminated three YouTube channels after they were found to be sharing ‘sensational content’ in Chinese about the Ukraine war and the relations between China and Taiwan.
In October, Google had said it terminated 5,197 YouTube channels and 17 Blogger blogs for the same purpose.
Google has a bitter relationship with the Communist-ruled country. In 2010, it had pulled down its search engine over Beijing’s censorship rules. Its other services like Google Maps and Gmail are also banned by the Chinese government.
In 2018, Google was mulling re-entering China but backtracked following objections from employees and politicians.
Besides China, Google said it blocked one domain from appearing on Google News as part of its investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran.
Google said it terminated an AdSense account and blocked three domains from appearing on Google News and Discover. The search engine giant said the account was found sharing English content supporting ‘independence movements in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and critical of the United Kingdom and its recent governments.
