Google closed 449 Korean YouTube channels in the second quarter of this year, which it believed were..

367 in May alone ahead of local elections…81.7%
“Including both government support and criticism”

사진 확대 AI-generated images to help you understand the article. [Chat GPT]

Google closed 449 Korean YouTube channels in the second quarter of this year, which it believed were systematically trying to influence public opinion by dealing with Korea-related content. However, Google did not disclose the channel name, the operating entity, and the specific basis for the decision.

According to the information and communication technology (ICT) industry on the 16th, the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) released the ‘Second Quarter 2026 Impact Work Report’ on the 31st of last month.

It is unusual for a large-scale Korean-language politics-related channel to be detected in Google’s quarterly impact work report. From the second quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, there was no case of blocking Korean-related channels in the same report.

According to the report, a total of 449 Korean YouTube channels were blocked by Google between April and June this year, including 22 in April, 367 in May and 60 in June.

In particular, 367 channels, or 81.7% of the total, were closed in May alone ahead of the June 3 local elections.

사진 확대 [Gemini generation infographic]

When looking at the channels discovered in May by the nature of content, the number of criticisms from the Korean government was the highest at 142. It was followed by 71 government support, 58 government support, 53 simultaneous criticism of the government and certain political parties, and 43 government support and specific political parties.

In April, 22 channels that criticized a particular political party while supporting a particular politician were blocked. In June, 60 channels that systematically distributed content criticizing certain politicians were subject to sanctions.

Google judged that these channels engaged in “non-authentic coordination” by using a number of accounts to disguise themselves as voluntary individual activities and then intervened in the formation of specific political public opinion.

However, unlike other countries such as China, Russia, and Iran, detailed information such as the country behind the scenes, specific operating entities, and channel name was not disclosed for the Korean channel.

Meanwhile, Google also investigated influence operations related to China, Russia, India, and the United States during the same period.

In the second quarter alone, 9,173 YouTube channels were closed in the channel group identified as being linked to China. A number of Russian-linked channels that supported Russia or distributed content criticizing Ukraine, NATO, and the West were also sanctioned.