YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos drew 1.2bn views in 2025, study finds

Summary

A Guardian investigation cites research from Reset Tech identifying more than 150 anonymous YouTube channels that mass-produced anti–UK Labour “news” using cheap AI tooling (e.g., synthetic scripts and templated production), reaching nearly 1.2 billion views in 2025. The pattern looks less like a single coordinated influence operation and more like a monetization machine: sensational AI-generated narratives engineered to farm clicks, subscribers, and ad revenue. After the Guardian raised the findings, YouTube removed the flagged channels and reiterated that deceptive/spam behavior is prohibited, highlighting the platform’s ongoing tension between engagement-driven distribution and integrity enforcement. The bigger takeaway for the Race to AGI crowd: generative AI isn’t just creating ‘content’—it’s industrializing misinformation supply chains, forcing platforms (and regulators) to rethink what scalable provenance, moderation, and demonetization must look like in an AI-native media environment.