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Google released its quarterly Threat Analysis Group (TAG) bulletin on Monday, which showed that since the start of 2025, YouTube has taken down about 34,000 channels linked to Chinese, Russian or other foreign adversaries’ propaganda campaigns.
The last three months saw a significant decline from the first three months of the year. Between April, May and June, according to Google’s Q2 TAG bulletin, just under 11,000 YouTube channels were removed.
That is a drop from about 23,000 that were removed between January, February and March.
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Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) indicated in its 14th annual Digital News Report released last month that YouTube outranks Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok as Americans’ preferred source for news across social media, or (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Every quarter we share an update on coordinated influence operation campaigns terminated on our platform, as part of our transparency reporting,” a YouTube spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The findings from the most recent update are in line with our expectations of this regular and ongoing work.”
YouTube has increasingly become a significant source of news for many Americans. Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) indicated in its 14th annual Digital News Report released last month that, for the first time, social media displaced television as the top way people consume their news.
In this photo illustration a smartphone screen displays the logos of various social media networks widely used across the globe. (Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Per the report, which surveyed nearly 100,000 people across 48 countries, 54% said they had utilized social media and video networks as a source of news in the past week.
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American users’ preference for social media over television news sat at 55% in 2021, but today is at 72%, according to the report.
When looking at YouTube and Americans specifically, its prevalence as a source of news outranks Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok, the report also indicates.
Sign with logos for Google and the Google owned video streaming service YouTube at the Googleplex, the Silicon Valley headquarters of search engine and technology company Google Inc in Mountain View, California, April 14, 2018. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images / Getty Images)
A Fox News Digital analysis of both Google’s Q1 and Q2 TAG bulletins for 2025, found that Russia and China were among the most frequent origin of these foreign influence campaigns.
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In some cases the campaigns were linked to Russia, but shared content in a range of different languages, such as Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, French, English and Farsi.
Meanwhile, while less common, YouTube also terminated channels linked to influence campaigns originating from countries like Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ghana and Israel.
