Google blocked more than 16,000 Azerbaijani-linked YouTube channels between 2021 and 2024 for spreading anti-Armenian content and promoting Azerbaijani government narratives.
According to Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), 87% of these removals occurred in 2024, reports Hetq.
Investigations into Azerbaijan-related activities first appeared in Threat Analysis Group reports in the second quarter of 2021. In June of that year, Google blocked 33 channels for disseminating content in Azerbaijani and Armenian that promoted the Azerbaijani military. TAG noted that these accounts bore similarities to propaganda networks previously identified by Facebook.
In October 2020, Facebook (now Meta) uncovered an Azerbaijani network using fake accounts to spread propaganda. The posts, primarily in Azerbaijani, as well as in Russian and English, focused on regional politics and the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. They praised Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) party while attacking opposition figures and denying allegations of human rights violations by Azerbaijan.
Following Facebook’s revelations, Google intensified its efforts against Azerbaijani-linked propaganda. After initially shutting down 33 YouTube channels in 2021, the scope of the investigation widened significantly. By 2022, 516 additional channels were blocked. However, the largest crackdown came in 2024, when Google removed over 14,000 Azerbaijani-linked YouTube channels as part of the Threat Analysis Group’s investigation. This accounted for 87% of the total channels removed during the multi-year effort.
It is important to note that these removals specifically targeted Azerbaijani propaganda, including anti-Armenian activities. The channels were identified through Google’s internal investigations and were not necessarily linked to other policy violations on YouTube.
TAG’s 2024 reports began including data on this investigation in June, with the number of blocked channels increasing each month. However, the reports do not specify how many videos these channels produced, the number of views they received, or their geographic reach.
Recent findings indicate that Azerbaijan-related investigations were a top priority for Threat Analysis Group in 2024. This operation ranked as the third-largest propaganda crackdown, following campaigns linked to China and Russia.
In a separate investigation in October 2023, Google removed another 57 YouTube channels in Russian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish that promoted Azerbaijan’s stance on the Artsakh issue. While these accounts were linked to Russia, the content was critical of both Russia and Armenia.
Google’s reports have also highlighted the blocking of Armenian content in recent years, particularly instances where Google News amplified pro-Russian narratives in Armenian and Georgian, referencing political developments in both countries.
While the full impact of Azerbaijani propaganda campaigns remains difficult to quantify, the sheer number of blocked channels underscores the scale of Azerbaijan’s efforts to manipulate information online. Technology companies conducting internal investigations frequently identify similar patterns in these operations, concluding that they are part of a coordinated strategy.
