[ad_1]
Over the past year, Google has repeatedly pointed out that China-based groups are using YouTube to try to influence audiences, especially in the West. It is to build various channels on the app and distribute content that is pro-Chinese.
Limited information is available about the group’s full origins and intentions, but today Google published a new outline of its ongoing efforts to combat an initiative called DRAGONBRIDGE.
According to Google’s description:
“In 2022, Google interfered with over 50,000 instances of DRAGONBRIDGE activity on YouTube, Blogger, and AdSense. This reflects our continued focus on this actor and our success in expanding our detection efforts across Google products. We have terminated over 100,000 DRAGONBRIDGE accounts during the lifetime of the IO network.”
As you can see in this chart, DRAGONBRIDGE is the source with the most. Cooperative information manipulation Google has detected it in the past year, but Google also notes that it was able to disrupt most of the impacts the project attempted.
Scale is also noteworthy. As Google points out, DRAGONBRIDGE has created over 100,000 accounts of his, including tens of thousands of YouTube channels. Not individual videos, but entire channels within the app that are a huge amount of work and the content this group is creating.
It’s not cheap and it’s not easy to keep running. So they must be doing it for a reason.
A broader implication, noted by various other publications and analysts, is that DRAGONBRIDGE is supported by the Chinese government as part of a broader effort to influence foreign policy approach via social media apps. It means that there is a possibility that
Concerning at this kind of scale, DRAGONBRIDGE also targeted Facebook and Twitter at different times. Efforts on these platforms have reached similar activity levels and may go undetected. yet.
It also ties in with TikTok, a Chinese-owned app that is currently having a huge impact on younger audiences in the West. It stands to reason that it is likely a prime candidate to boost similar programs, and remains a key concern among regulators and officials in many countries.
The U.S. government is reportedly considering a complete ban on TikTok, and if that happens, many other countries will no doubt follow suit. Based on advice, it has banned TikTok on official devices, and programs like DRAGONBRIDGE are also running, allowing China-based groups to actively operate influence and manipulation programs in foreign countries. It seems that.
This seems like a serious problem. Google seems to have caught most of these channels before they have an impact, but this seems to be just one component of a larger push.
Hopefully, through collective action, such impact could be limited, but for TikTok, which still reports to Chinese ownership, it’s another factor that could raise further questions and scrutiny. am.
[ad_2]
Source link
