San Francisco (AFP)

After Twitter and Facebook, the YouTube video platform said Thursday it has also acted against a massive propaganda campaign by the Chinese authorities on social networks to discredit the mobilization for democratic reforms in Hong Kong.

YouTube turned off 210 channels after discovering they were "coordinating by uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong," said Shane Huntley, security analyst at Google Group, who owns the video platform.

"We have uncovered the use of VPNs (virtual network to conceal the actual geographic origin of the Internet connection) and other methods to hide the origin of these accounts," said the expert. "This discovery is consistent with recent observations and actions by Facebook and Twitter regarding China."

Two other US technology giants, Twitter and Facebook, on Monday lodged similar charges against Beijing, saying they have closed a thousand active accounts related to the misinformation campaign. Twitter said it also closed another 200,000 accounts before they were really active.

"These accounts deliberately and specifically sought to sow political discord in Hong Kong and in particular to undermine the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground," explained Twitter about suspended active accounts.

Facebook also said that some of the suspended accounts' reports compared the Hong Kong protesters to ISIS fighters, calling them "roaches" and allegedly laying down slingshot killings.

A semi-autonomous region in southern China, Hong Kong has been through its worst political crisis since June, with demonstrations and other almost daily actions demanding more freedoms.

The mobilization has often turned into clashes in recent weeks between radical activists and law enforcement. This resulted in more urgent threats of intervention by the Chinese central government, which described the movement as "terrorist".

Beijing, however, officially gave free rein to the local executive and its police to resolve the situation.

Behind the scenes, the central government is making great efforts to influence opinion, say Twitter, Facebook, and now Google.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry assured via a spokesman "not to be aware of the situation".

© 2019 AFP