North American senators against YouTube. A report accuses the portal of being an instrument of Russian propaganda
North American senators against YouTube. They are the members of the intelligence committee who last Tuesday published a report in which they accused the Google YouTube video portal of being the "preferred propaganda vehicle" for the Russian broadcasting group RT, sponsored by the state.
North American senators against YouTube. The explanation
The report se focused on disinformation campaigns on the Internet carried out by the Internet Investigation Agency (IRA), which some called a "notorious operation" by Russian agents operating mainly under the guise of fake accounts.
Other platforms preferred by the Russians also seem to be Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
However the report is a bit contradictory:
There is little evidence that the IRA's operational efforts depended so much on Google products like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to execute the most visible aspects of your information warfare campaign.
It follows from the report that of the Google products used, YouTube was the most popular. The vast majority of IRA videos they were targeting black americans, addressing issues such as police brutality from a racial perspective.
YouTube remains the preferred propaganda vehicle of the Russian state-sponsored news organization, RT (formerly Russia Today). As of February 2019, RT had nearly 3,3 million global subscribers to its YouTube channel.
Incidentally, the Google search engine also received some sticks to which they also accused of privileging the content of fake news.
Days after the 2016 presidential election, a falsified media account that President-elect Donald Trump had won by popular vote ranked higher than stories that accurately reflected the outcome of the US elections.
Remember that the United States has an electoral college system. Trump got more representatives. But her opponent, Hillary Clinton, was in fact the one who got the most votes in the elections.
Until now, Google had not been in the crosshairs of American politicians on the issue of Russian espionage. The bulk of the criticism had been taken by Facebook and Twitter.