The Yandex outage probably didn’t blitz Russian bots
News Source
•2026-10-12T11:43:07-04:00
📰 What Happened
Ukrainian drone strikes over the past week took some Russian data centres offline, and an online chart showed bot traffic dropping sharply. Social media users jumped on the chart as proof that Russia's propaganda bots had been knocked out.
But reporters say that reading is likely wrong. The traffic that fell was probably ordinary web activity from services that went down, not the troll accounts that spread disinformation.
A chart using Cloudflare data circulated widely. Experts say it does not show the kind of automated propaganda accounts most people picture when they hear 'Russian bots'.
🔍 The Backstory
Yandex is Russia's biggest tech company, running search, email and other services. When its data centres lose power, lots of normal traffic simply stops.
Russia operates networks of fake accounts that push propaganda, especially about the war in Ukraine. People often blame any odd online pattern on these 'bots'.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian energy and technology sites during the war, which can cause real outages.
🎯 Why It Matters
It is a clear example of how a real event gets twisted online. Learning to question viral charts helps people avoid spreading claims that are not true.
Ukrainian drone strikes over the past week took some Russian data centres offline, and an online chart showed bot traffic dropping sharply. Social media users jumped on the chart as proof that Russia's propaganda bots had been knocked out.
But reporters say that reading is likely wrong. The traffic that fell was probably ordinary web activity from services that went down, not the troll accounts that spread disinformation.
A chart using Cloudflare data circulated widely. Experts say it does not show the kind of automated propaganda accounts most people picture when they hear 'Russian bots'.
Yandex is Russia's biggest tech company, running search, email and other services. When its data centres lose power, lots of normal traffic simply stops.
Russia operates networks of fake accounts that push propaganda, especially about the war in Ukraine. People often blame any odd online pattern on these 'bots'.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian energy and technology sites during the war, which can cause real outages.
It is a clear example of how a real event gets twisted online. Learning to question viral charts helps people avoid spreading claims that are not true.