Russian bot farms are still trolling, even after Ukraine’s drone strikes on Yandex
Recent claims that Ukrainian drone strikes on Yandex data centers successfully crippled Russian disinformation campaigns appear to be exaggerated or false. Evidence suggests that bot activity remains steady and that reports of a decline in spam are likely based on AI-generated misinformation.
Why it matters
This highlights the difficulty of verifying the impact of cyber-warfare and the prevalence of misinformation regarding the effectiveness of such operations.
Days after Ukrainian military drones took down several Russian data centers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that the campaign had hurt Russia’s disinformation efforts. “It suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social platforms,” Zelenskyy said Monday. “There was less hate, less division, and fewer provocations.”
Zelenskyy isn’t the first to assert that the drone operation, which targeted data centers belonging to the Russian technology company Yandex, has cut down on spam and disinformation campaigns fomented by Russian bot farms. Social media users have claimed they’ve noticed less traffic on posts by MAGA-affiliated accounts, as well as those associated with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Some have even said they’ve noticed a steep drop in spam calls and messages.
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