Russia-Linked Bot Networks Kept Their Weekly Rhythm After Drone Strikes on Three Yandex Data Centers—Disinformation Monitor LetsData
Researchers found no statistically significant drop in AfD or MAGA social media activity after the strikes, despite viral claims of a bot collapse.
- Between October 8 and 11, Kyiv struck three Yandex data centers in Sasovo, Kaluga and the Vladimir region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Monday that the strikes led to a sudden decrease in bot activity online.
- Tech experts quickly explained that the 'bots' taken offline were actually web crawlers, not social media trolls that continually browse the internet to index web pages. Cloudflare recorded automated requests from Yandex's network falling to just 0.4 per cent of peak levels.
- Danish analyst Valdemar Osted found no evidence of bot collapse after testing 76 AfD politicians and 136 MAGA accounts on Facebook. Polisphere tracked nearly 10,000 accounts and reported no statistically significant decline in disinformation activity after the strikes.
- Polish military commentator JarosBaw Wolski apologized on Tuesday for sharing false data suggesting a 56 per cent decline in AfD-related bot activity. Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation acknowledged on Tuesday that it had no evidence of a major overall reduction.
- Participants in studies often overestimate bot prevalence and see themselves as less vulnerable to influence than others. Renee DiResta explains that 'bot' means different things in different contexts, which is contributing to public confusion and the rapid spread of unsubstantiated claims.
21 Articles
21 Articles
After the attacks on the data centers of the Russian company Yandex, no significant changes in the spread of Kremlin disinformation have been recorded in Lithuania, according to the National Crisis Management Center (NKMC).
Ukrainian attacks on Yandex’s Russian data centers have disrupted online services and reportedly caused a sharp decline in Moscow’s disinformation networks. However, experts warn that the drop in bot traffic does not mean a decline in Russian propaganda on social media, the Guardian reports today. The Ukrainian attacks on Yandex’s data centers have reignited debate about whether attacks on digital infrastructure can limit Moscow’s disinformation…
The researchers decided to examine how the activity of accounts known to be associated with the spread of Russian propaganda and disinformation has changed in recent days. They focused on almost 10,000 profiles on social networks. The result is clear: they did not notice any statistically significant decrease in their activity in connection with the shutdown of Yandex data centers.
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