Google deletes accounts with ties to Iran on YouTube and other sites

by **Ponee** Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:36 pm

Google deletes accounts with ties to Iran on YouTube and other sites

Google announced Thursday that it deleted 58 accounts with ties to Iran on its video platformYouTube and its other sites, the latest sign that foreign agents from around the world increasingly seek to spread disinformation on a broad array of popular websites, The Washington Post reported.

The new removals targeted 39 channels on YouTube, which had more than 13,000 views in the United States, as well 13 accounts on the social-networking site Google Plus and six accounts on Blogger, its blogging platform, the company said. Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for global affairs, said in a blog post that each of the accounts had ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, which is tied to Iran’s ayatollah, and that they “disguised their connection to this effort.”
Google’s announcement comes days after Facebook suspended hundreds of accounts on its site and photo-sharing app, Instagram, that originated in Iran as well as Russia, and Twitter made a similar move. At the time, YouTube confirmed it had removed one account, called Liberty Front Press, which appeared to have connections to Iranian state media.

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/Story/30902/Google-deletes-accounts-with-ties-to-Iran-on-YouTube-and-other-sites