Google has shut down 449 Korean-language YouTube channels that it determined were engaged in organized political manipulation related to content in South Korea during the second quarter of this year. Of these, 367 channels were blocked in May alone, ahead of the June 3 local elections.
According to a report released by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) on August 31, the channels were blocked between April and June 2026. The number of blocked channels surged from 22 in April to 367 in May, before decreasing to 60 in June. May accounted for 81.7% of the total blocks.
Among the channels blocked in May, 142 focused on criticizing the South Korean government, while 71 supported it. Additionally, 58 channels backed specific politicians, 53 criticized both the government and a particular political party, and 43 supported the government while criticizing a specific party.
In April, 22 channels that supported specific politicians while criticizing a party were blocked. In June, 60 channels that systematically disseminated content criticizing specific politicians were sanctioned.
Google assessed that these channels used multiple accounts to disguise their activities as individual actions. The company classified this as 'inauthentic coordinated behavior' aimed at systematically influencing specific political opinions.
Unlike cases of influence operations linked to countries such as China, Russia, and Iran, Google did not disclose any specific state or operational entities behind the blocked Korean channels. The names of the closed channels were also not revealed.
It is unusual for Korean political channels to be identified on a large scale in Google’s quarterly influence operation reports. There were no instances of blocked Korean channels in the reports from the second quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of this year.
During the same period, Google closed over 18,500 channels worldwide suspected of influence operations, with 9,173 linked to China, 2,083 to Russia, 1,778 to India, and 981 to Azerbaijan.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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