Google's Threat Analysis Group just released its Q4 2025 quarterly bulletin, and the numbers tell a stark story about the scale of coordinated influence operations targeting its platforms. The company terminated more than 18,000 YouTube channels, blocked hundreds of domains from Google News, and shut down dozens of ad accounts linked to state-backed actors across Russia, China, and at least a dozen other countries. The report, published by TAG analyst Billy Leonard, reveals how Russia alone accounted for the majority of takedowns, with massive networks linked to known influence factories like the Internet Research Agency still operating at scale.
Google isn't pulling punches when it comes to state-backed influence operations. The company's Threat Analysis Group published its Q4 2025 bulletin today, documenting a sweeping enforcement action that wiped out more than 18,000 accounts across YouTube, Blogger, and Google Ads - the vast majority tied to coordinated campaigns from Russia and China.
The scale is staggering. According to the official TAG bulletin, Russian actors dominated the takedown lists across all three months, with Google terminating roughly 2,500 YouTube channels in October alone that were linked to a single Russian consulting firm. That network was pushing pro-Russia, anti-NATO content in Russian, targeting audiences with narratives critical of Ukraine and Western allies. By December, Google had axed another 1,256 channels connected to the same operation.
But Russia's influence machinery runs deeper than one consulting firm. The Internet Research Agency - the notorious troll farm sanctioned by the US government - still had active channels on YouTube as recently as December. Google terminated nine IRA-linked channels across October and December, all sharing Russian-language content supportive of the Kremlin and critical of Moldova. The timing wasn't coincidental - Moldova held presidential elections in October, and Russian networks flooded the zone with anti-government narratives.
