449 S. Korean YouTube channels taken down by Google over political content in Q2

Seoul, Aug 17 (IANS) Google shut down 449 South Korean YouTube channels in the second quarter of this year for their politically charged content, a report showed.

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, reports Yonhap news agency.

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.

Last week, South Korea’s media watchdog concluded that U.S.-based Google and Apple violated related laws by abusing their dominance in their respective app marketplaces.

The level of sanctions will be decided at a later date, the Korea Media Communications Commission (KMCC) said at a regular meeting.

The two U.S. tech companies are accused of bypassing the revision to the telecommunications business act passed in 2021, which aims to prevent large app market operators from forcing app developers to use only their in-app payment systems.

Following the revision, Google and Apple had allowed customers to purchase apps through a third-party payment gateway but imposed a transaction fee of around 26 percent on non in-app purchases — a move that drew criticism for effectively nullifying the law.

In October 2023, South Korea’s media watchdog had warned it would impose the highest fine possible on the two tech giants but has yet to carry out such a punishment.

—IANS

na/