Did “Russian bot traffic” really disappear after Ukrainian strikes on Yandex servers?

Despite multiple Ukrainian strikes hitting Yandex servers in Russia, a thread by antibot4navalny, which has long tracked state-sponsored social media campaigns and troll farms, explains that the Cloudflare “Bot Traffic” chart many people have cited is really about automated web crawlers operated by Yandex accessing the web. It’s not connected to “bots” posting on social media, and Russian bot/crawler traffic overall continues to be about the same as normal. Still, are you noticing any difference in the posts and comments you’ve seen online? [Media: https://bsky.app/profile/antibot4navalny.bsky.social/post/3mxmv7t6nxc27]

Did Ukrainian strikes on Russian datacentres reduce online disinformation?

While some viral online graphs suggest less bot activity, Zelenskyy’s claims of improved social media discourse do not entirely pass muster

Yandex bot traffic drop isn’t a Russian bot farm collapse

0.4% Yandex bot traffic drop reflects stalled web crawling, not proof that Russian troll farms went offline. Read what the data shows

Zelenskyy: less bots, hostility on social networks after strikes on Yandex data centers

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that following Ukrainian responses targeting the data centers of the Russian company Yandex, there are fewer bots, provocations, and hostility on social media platforms.

The Pravda Network

DFRLab’s groundbreaking investigations, in collaboration with CheckFirst, uncover how the Russian Pravda network leverages cross-platform, multilingual influence operations and manipulates Wikipedia, large language models, and X to amplify pro-Kremlin narratives.

Zelenskyy Says Yandex Strikes Crippled Pro-Kremlin Bots But Tech Experts Question Evidence

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine's recent attacks on Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centers have resulted in fewer Internet bots promoting pro-Kremlin hate, a claim that has been disputed by many technology researchers.

Is Zelensky right to say data centre strikes have taken down Russian bots?

Experts say there is no evidence that Russian trolls have been affected by Ukraine’s Yandex attacks.

Russian bot farms are still trolling, even after Ukraine’s drone strikes on Yandex

Call it disinformation about disinformation.

The Center examined how strikes on Yandex affected the spread of russian propaganda | Центр протидії дезінформації

The Center examined changes in global internet traffic following Ukrainian strikes on data centers belonging to Yandex, a sanctioned russian IT giant, in sa ...

Rapid-response fact-check: "Yandex Strikes Caused Russian Bot Activity To Drop By 50 Percent" Is False | Joohn Choe

This is going on viral on Facebook today and it's unfortunately wrong. Ukrainian drone strikes on Yandex data centers in Russia did not cut

Angriffe auf Yandex-Rechenzentren: Unklarheit über Auswirkungen auf russische Propaganda

Zahlreiche anekdotische Beobachtungen legten einen Rückgang nahe, doch Experten warnen vor voreiligen Schlussfolgerungen