r/technology • u/Regular_Eggplant_248 • Jul 21 '25

Social Media YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/21/youtube-channels-propaganda-china-russia.html
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u/jmanclovis Jul 21 '25

I was just thinking of how he covered the midan revolution for vice in 2013 2014 I wonder if Russia was already using him then or when they got to him?

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u/lovetheoceanfl Jul 22 '25

Oh shit! That totally tracks with Vice around that time. He was hanging with Kim Dotcom and some other sketch people.

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u/jmanclovis Jul 22 '25

I mean the Russians kidnapped Simon. Maybe he refused to play ball

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u/Cyborg_rat Jul 22 '25

Was going to point that out and how they followed the start of the war in Ukraine, showing the green men.

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u/Capital_Doubt7473 Jul 22 '25

Of they're not complicit idiots they would be sooooooo easy to compromise.   

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u/astroplink Jul 22 '25

I had no idea this connection existed. It makes sense now

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u/Vio_ Jul 22 '25

That's around the time reddit got inundated with a bunch of pro-Russian nut jobs. It was a whole thing. They'd spam the politics and other default subs constantly.

It "died out" after some pretty big pushback, but I'm guessing the disinformation groups got better at being more subtle.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/origins-russias-broad-political-assault-united-states/

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u/space-dot-dot Jul 22 '25

And in 2015, Russian bots fueled paranoia over Jade Helm exercises in Texas. They were gearing up and seeing what would work for the POTUS election in 2016.

And all this happened because in 2012, Facebook decided to start suggesting other accounts to connect with and the ability to share things far and wide.

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u/MountainOpposite513 Jul 22 '25

There's a huge contingent of russian trolls on urbanhell still, the main Canada sub is fucked too 

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u/heliamphore Jul 22 '25

They're all over the place, but they're more obvious during specific events. When the full scale invasion of Ukraine started, suddenly there were loads of "redditors" of the opinion that Ukrainians were neo-nazis, that they didn't want to care about Ukraine since no one cared about Palestinians, that were claiming that Russia wasn't imperialistic and so on. I think pushback helped, but it's also because the bots shifted strategy. 

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u/Chicano_Ducky Jul 22 '25

Probably always a tool. Dude was around when the Gamestop stuff happened like his job was to harvest conspiracy minded nutters.

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u/travel_posts Jul 22 '25

revolution lol. the cia cutout NED was involved which makes it a foreign backed coup. if youbwoukdnt support a russian or chinese version of NED doing all the same stuff in your country then youre a hypocrite.

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u/waiting4singularity Jul 22 '25

russian and chinese propaganda is anti democratic. even us propaganda is, was even before him in some definitions because they were against social democratics and social economy.
china and russla are worse still, though.

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u/travel_posts Jul 22 '25

russia is the same system as america. when america destroyed tge ussr we copy/pasted our system onto them. liberal democracies are not actual democracies because choosing between two puppets owned by competing factions of the capitalist class isnt a real choice.

meanwhile the chinese government, according to a long term harvard study, has a 93% approval rating(only 40 something % for regional government) and they have the tangible improvements is living standad to justify that support. america has invaded more countries and killed more people than modern russia and china combined, america is by far the greatest evil on the planet. you just dont care because that evil is done to other people and makes your life better.

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u/waiting4singularity Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

russia and china aint that good. the simple fact that dissidents vanish make any questionnaire like that absurd. the other fact is they killed their own people during revolutions as systematic as posible to cleanse the population makes them bad. everyone saying different is pretty much in on the propaganda.

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u/travel_posts Jul 22 '25

russia and china aint that good.

china isnt good, theyre great. russia is as bad as america but theyre weaker so theyre not as effectively evil

the simple fact that dissidents vanish make any questionnaire like that absurd.

thats not true at all, you've fallen for propaganda. also it wasnt a simple questionaire, it was a decade long study by the worlds leading university. its also publicly available so you can go read it yourself to see what their actual methodology was. or you can travel to china like millions of people do every year to see for yourself and speak to locals. i moved here from america and can say from personal experience that people are generally happy and open to talking about their criticisms.

the other fact is they killed their own people during revolutions as systematic as posible to cleanse the population makes them bad.

this is also wrong. they killed fascists, monarchist, and other counter revolutionaries. did liberals debate monarchists into submission during their revolutions? some of the things the french did make every communist revolution look soft. if everyone thought like you then we would all still be living under feudal monarchies where they killed us peasants.

here is a quote by mark twain in support of the attrocities that happened to bring the system you support into power

THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.

everyone saying different is pretty much in on the propaganda.

youre the one falling for propaganda. i grew up in the same propaganda bubble as you, believing the same things. but now i have first had experience that shows me the opposite is true. you dont. you just have faith that your capitalist oligarch owned media is giving you the correct information. you trust your beliefs like a religious person because you have no first hand experience.

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u/waiting4singularity Jul 22 '25

the june thing is real. ive seen the pictures of tank track minced meat. fact is also, putin systematicaly prevents the opposition from running same as democratic movement in hong kong was neutered and decapitated. they were as much terrorists as the sleeping students.

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u/No_Astronomer4483 Jul 22 '25

china uses hundreds of millions of construction slaves to build its cities that they brag about so loudly on tiktok. Millions of them die each year in accidents and as the result of the intentional neglect of the CCP.

Get off your high horse.

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u/travel_posts Jul 22 '25

millions?! lmao youve been watching too many youtube channels operated by the falun gong cult. im an american who lives in china. i see the cobstruction workers having the same or better safety than back home. they also get a better life for their labor than the illegal immigrant labor america exploits.

youve been brainwashed by capitalist propaganda. youre welcome to come to china and see for yourself. more and more people do every year and they all cajt believe how much theyve been misled