Google Disables YouTube Channels It Linked to Hong Kong Influence Operation
August 22 2019 - 7:20PM
Dow Jones News
By Robert McMillan
Google pulled 210 YouTube channels from its platform, saying
that they appeared to be part of a coordinated disinformation
campaign in response to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. made similar moves earlier this
week, citing evidence that the Chinese government was behind
efforts to discredit the protesters.
"This discovery was consistent with recent observations and
actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter," Google
wrote in a blog post Thursday. It didn't specifically blame Beijing
for the campaign.
More than 5% of the tweets posted this year by the accounts
Twitter removed included links to YouTube, said Kate Starbird, a
professor at the University of Washington, who studies online
disinformation
Hong Kong has been racked by a series of massive protests this
summer, in response to proposed legislation to allow the
extradition of Hong Kong residents to stand trial in mainland
China. The legislation were tabled, but demonstrations have
continued in the semi-autonomous territory.
Chinese officials have said that the Facebook and Twitter posts
were made by Chinese citizens living overseas and expressing their
views on the protest.
The Chinese activity has invited comparisons to Russia's
Internet Research Agency, accused by the federal prosecutors of
engaging in a state-sponsored online influence campaign during the
2016 U.S. presidential election. But the accounts removed by
Twitter and Facebook were much less sophisticated than those
created by the Russian group, said Alex Stamos, formerly Facebook's
chief security officer.
The contrast has made the Chinese efforts less believable,
according to Mr. Stamos, who now researchers online disinformation
at Stanford University.
"The [Internet Research Agency] spent years building and
backstopping identities that had specific points of view, through
which they could launder their messages," he said. "In this case,
it is almost completely obvious when one of these trolls is pushing
the Chinese communist party line."
Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 22, 2019 19:05 ET (23:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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