Google blocks over 50,000 pro-China propaganda accounts

The group has primarily targeted Chinese speakers, but some narratives were in English and other languages, it said in a statement.

TAG further stated that they have terminated over 100,000 DRAGONBRIDGE accounts in the IO network’s lifetime. Despite their scale and profuse content production, DRAGONBRIDGE achieved practically no organic engagement from real viewers in 2022, the majority of DRAGONBRIDGE channels had 0 subscribers when Google disrupted them, and over 80 per cent of DRAGONBRIDGE videos had fewer than 100 views.

In the rare cases where DRAGONBRIDGE content did receive engagement, it was almost entirely inauthentic, coming from other DRAGONBRIDGE accounts and not from genuine users. Comment activity was mostly from other DRAGONBRIDGE accounts.

“Blogger engagement metrics also show almost no authentic audience for DRAGONBRIDGE’s blogs. For blogs terminated in December, nearly 95 per cent of DRAGONBRIDGE blogs received 10 or fewer views, and over 96 per cent received no comments,” the statement read.

Even they shifted some of its focus toward White House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she made a visit to Taiwan.

“In 2022, DRAGONBRIDGE also posted narratives claiming the US was responsible for stoking tensions abroad and meddling in the domestic affairs of other countries. DRAGONBRIDGE’s US-focused narratives portrayed US society and democracy in a negative light, cycling through political and social narratives that evolved with the headlines. In 2022, Google removed DRAGONBRIDGE content on topics such as the US Covid-19 response, racial inequality, political divisions, inflation, and other controversial topics,” according to the statement.