▲ This screen grab shows the heading of Google's "Influence Operations Bulletin" for the second quarter of 2026. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Yonhap) -- Google shut down 449 South Korean YouTube channels in the second quarter of this year for their politically charged content, a report showed Sunday.

According to "Influence Operations Bulletin Q2 2006" by Google's Threat Analysis Group, the U.S. company terminated 22 YouTube channels in Korean in April, 367 more in May and another 60 in June.

The largest share came in May, just before the June 3 local elections.

Per the report, these channels were terminated for sharing content that was either critical or supportive of the South Korean government and for expressing support for or disapproval of particular South Korean political parties or political figures.

Google had not terminated any South Korean YouTube channel between the second quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. During that span, Google shut down 9,173 channels linked to China, followed by 2,083 linked to Russia.

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