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/yumyumtree_throwaway Jul 22 '25

You gotta hand it to Google though, they’re the only ones with the balls to actually try to fight against the hostile disinformation campaign. I have yet to see the same from Meta, X, Tiktok, even Reddit is infested with propaganda bots.

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u/KnockturnalNOR Jul 22 '25

iirc Twitter used to ban millions of Chinese and Russian bots every day before being bought up. I suppose X still deals with them but not nearly to the same degree

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u/20_mile Jul 22 '25

even Reddit is infested with propaganda bots.

Smithers. You. Are. Quite good. At. Turning. Me. On.

I see them all the time in /AskMen (elsewhere, too, like /relationships, /dating, etc). Accounts that are 3-6 years old, have been dormant until recently, have post and comment karma in the mid-100s, asking clickbaity questions, and never reply to any comments in the thread.

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u/1900grs Jul 22 '25

I see them all the time in /r/politics. For some reason, you're not allowed to say anything about it.

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u/Elementium Jul 22 '25

Wasn't the Google CEO at Trumps inauguration?

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u/Takedown22 Jul 22 '25

One of those is not like the others…

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u/Bugbread Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

Not even sure which one you're pointing at there.

Meta's not like the others in that it's not a social media network but instead a collection of different social media networks (Facebook, Instagram, Threads). It's also not like the others because one of its social media networks (Facebook) is primarily used by fairly old folks.
X's not like the others in that it's owned by an insanely rich crazy edgelord/nazi.
TikTok's not like the others because it's Chinese-owned and consists almost entirely of short videos which makes it great at spreading misinformation to people with no attention spans.
Reddit's not like the others because it allows itself to be used as a coordination center by terrible people and refuses to take any action on anything until a media scandal breaks out.

So which of these are you pointing out as being "the one" that is not like "the others"?

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u/tangybaby Jul 22 '25

TikTok's not like the others because it consists almost entirely of short videos which makes it great at spreading misinformation to people with no attention spans.

Not OP, but the fact that TikTok originated from and is currently owned by the Chinese seems to have flown right over your head.

Meta's not like the others in that it's primarily used by fairly old folks who are worse at identifying AI slop.

Meta also owns Instagram and Threads, which are primarily used by younger people. Younger people are also not that great at identifying AI, btw. They're just getting it from TikTok and Instagram instead of Facebook.

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u/Bugbread Jul 22 '25

Not OP, but the fact that TikTok originated from and is currently owned by the Chinese seems to have flown right over your head.

Ah, good point. I've updated the comment accordingly.

Meta also owns Instagram and Threads, which are primarily used by younger people. Younger people are also not that great at identifying AI, btw. They're just getting it from TikTok and Instagram instead of Facebook.

Also a good point. I've updated the comment accordingly.