Google has removed nearly 11,000 YouTube channels and other accounts during the second quarter of 2025 as part of its efforts to tackle coordinated disinformation campaigns linked to several state actors, including China and Russia. According to a recent report by CNBC and Google’s official blog, more than 7,700 of these channels were tied to China. These accounts mainly posted content in Chinese and English promoting the People’s Republic of China, praising President Xi Jinping, and commenting on US foreign policy.
Google also terminated over 2,000 YouTube channels linked to Russia. These accounts spread messages in multiple languages that were supportive of Russia while criticising Ukraine, NATO, and Western nations. Some of the content was linked to Russian state-sponsored entities and consulting firms.
The takedowns are part of ongoing work by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), which monitors and counters influence operations around the world. A YouTube spokesperson said the latest findings are in line with the company’s expectations for this regular and ongoing work.
In May, Google removed 20 YouTube channels, four advertising accounts, and one Blogger blog tied to RT, Russia’s state-controlled media outlet. RT has previously been accused of paying popular conservative influencers in an effort to sway opinion ahead of the 2024 elections. YouTube had already blocked RT’s main channels in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Beyond China and Russia, Google also took down influence campaigns linked to Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Israel, Romania, and Ghana. The content targeted political opponents and touched on regional issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict and internal elections.
For example, 457 channels connected to Azerbaijan were removed for promoting pro-Azerbaijani narratives while criticising Armenia and domestic critics. In Iran’s case, the content was often supportive of the Iranian government and Palestine while being critical of the US, Israel, and the West.
In total, Google removed thousands of accounts in April, May, and June, each linked to well-planned campaigns across YouTube, Ads, AdSense, Blogger, and Google News. Several domains were also blocked from appearing in Google News and Discover for spreading similar propaganda content.
In the first quarter of 2025, Google removed more than 23,000 accounts. The second quarter’s figures bring the year-to-date tally to well over 30,000 account takedowns, reflecting the increasing scale of such operations.
Separately, Meta recently also announced the removal of 10 million fake profiles designed to impersonate large content creators. These removals were part of its broader initiative to reduce spam and misleading content.
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