Google Says Blocked 210 YouTube Accounts Over Coordinated Moves Around Hong Kong Rallies

Daniyal Sohail Published August 23, 2019 | 02:40 AM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2019) US technology giant Google said it had blocked 210 channels on the YouTube social platform that it owns after it was found that these accounts were part of a coordinated network uploading videos linked to anti-government protests which are underway in Hong Kong.

"Earlier this week, as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations, we disabled 210 channels on YouTube when we discovered channels in this network behaved in a coordinated manner while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. This discovery was consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter," Shane Huntley from Google's Threat Analysis Group wrote in an official blog post on Thursday.

Huntley also noted that VPNs and other tools had been used in China's special administrative region to disguise the origin of the accounts and their operations.

Earlier this week, US social media giant Facebook said it had removed five Chinese-based accounts and other pages that allegedly engaged in deceptive tactics focused on Hong Kong.

Twitter has also said it disabled hundreds of accounts in what it considered to be a coordinated operation focused on the protest movement in the region.

Hong Kong has been rocked by the protests since early June with protesters rallying against changes to the extradition legislation that would have allowed the city authorities to extradite suspects to various jurisdictions, including mainland China, without any bilateral deal.

At first, the rallies were peaceful but they subsequently led to violent clashes between the demonstrators and the police.

The city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, has since declared the bill "dead." The protesters, however, are demanding that it be withdrawn completely. The city residents also call on the authorities to implement universal suffrage and retract criminal charges against the protesters.