Google Removes Chinese Influence Channels: 15K YouTube Operations Exposed

Google has removed Chi­nese influ­ence chan­nels in a mas­sive coor­di­nat­ed take­down tar­get­ing pro­pa­gan­da net­works. On May 15, 2025, Social Media Today report­ed that Google ter­mi­nat­ed 15,876 YouTube chan­nels in the first quar­ter of 2025 as part of its ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into Chi­nese-orig­i­nat­ed influ­ence oper­a­tions that uploaded con­tent in Chi­nese and Eng­lish about Chi­na and U.S. for­eign affairs to manip­u­late West­ern pub­lic opin­ion. The arti­cle begins:

In its lat­est TAG Bul­letin, which out­lines all of its detec­tion and enforce­ment of influ­ence activ­i­ty across its plat­forms, Google reports that in the first three months of this year, it’s ter­mi­nat­ed 15,876 YouTube chan­nels as part its ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into coor­di­nat­ed influ­ence oper­a­tions linked to Chi­na. “The coor­di­nat­ed inau­then­tic net­work uploaded con­tent in Chi­nese and Eng­lish about Chi­na and U.S. for­eign affairs.” Which is not actu­al­ly a huge surprise.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/google-removes-15k-youtube-channels-china-influence-activity/748292/

Key Points

• Google has removed over 130,000 Chi­na-linked YouTube chan­nels since 2022, with 50,000 removed in 2022 and 65,000 in 2023.
• The Chi­nese oper­a­tions cre­ate seem­ing­ly legit­i­mate news chan­nels that embed pro-Chi­na mes­sag­ing with­in reg­u­lar con­tent to sub­tly shift view­er opinions.
• Google also removed 4,282 Russ­ian-linked chan­nels and 2,891 Azer­bai­jan-linked chan­nels in Q1 2025, plus 21 domains con­nect­ed to a U.S.-based con­sult­ing firm.
• The report sug­gests Tik­Tok like­ly faces sim­i­lar Chi­nese influ­ence oper­a­tions giv­en the pat­tern of tar­get­ing all major West­ern social media platforms.

Chinese “Influence Operations” on YouTube: Google Battles Sophisticated Propaganda Campaigns

Chi­nese influ­ence oper­a­tions have lever­aged YouTube and Google plat­forms to orches­trate large-scale, coor­di­nat­ed pro­pa­gan­da cam­paigns tar­get­ing glob­al audi­ences. Inves­ti­ga­tions have revealed AI-dri­ven pro-Chi­na pro­pa­gan­da on YouTube and the mass removal of thou­sands of chan­nels linked to Chi­nese influ­ence oper­a­tions, with con­tent often deny­ing forced labor in Xin­jiang or pro­mot­ing Chi­nese gov­ern­ment nar­ra­tives through floods of pro­pa­gan­da videos. These cam­paigns employ advanced tac­tics, includ­ing AI-gen­er­at­ed avatars and coor­di­nat­ed post­ing sched­ules, as doc­u­ment­ed by the Aus­tralian Strate­gic Pol­i­cy Institute’s Shad­ow Play report, which found net­works of chan­nels using syn­thet­ic media to pro­mote pro-Chi­na and anti-US nar­ra­tives to Eng­lish-speak­ing audiences.

Google’s own enforce­ment actions con­firm the scale, with near­ly 16,000 YouTube chan­nels removed in a sin­gle quar­ter for coor­di­nat­ed inau­then­tic behav­ior. Addi­tion­al research high­lights that many of these chan­nels use AI-gen­er­at­ed voiceovers and stock imagery to appear legit­i­mate, while oth­ers recruit for­eign influ­encers to ampli­fy Beijing’s mes­sag­ing. The per­sis­tence and sophis­ti­ca­tion of these oper­a­tions under­score the ongo­ing chal­lenge for plat­forms like YouTube and Google in coun­ter­ing state-linked dis­in­for­ma­tion and main­tain­ing con­tent integrity.

Exter­nal References:

1. An AI-dri­ven influ­ence oper­a­tion is spread­ing pro-Chi­na pro­pa­gan­da across YouTube

2. The for­eign­ers in Chi­na’s dis­in­for­ma­tion drive

3. Google’s Action Against Chi­nese Influ­ence Oper­a­tions: Major YouTube Chan­nel Removals in 2024

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.