- Cloudflare’s Yandex chart tracks crawlers, leaving disinformation claims unproven.
- 90 of roughly 1,000 subreddits saw declining activity, but a link to Russian bots remains unproven.
- Available data does not establish that Ukrainian strikes disrupted Russian disinformation networks.
Reddit activity declined across several platforms following Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian data centers operated by Yandex, prompting claims that the attacks disrupted Russian disinformation bots.
However, data shared by the account Reddit Lies opposes that explanation, saying the selected subreddit data does not prove a connection between the strikes and changes in Reddit activity.
The debate follows reports of disruptions to Yandex infrastructure and a drop in automated traffic associated with the company. While social media users linked the changes to Russian political influence campaigns, the data cited in the discussion does not confirm that Russian disinformation bots caused the reported decline.
Cloudflare Data Tracks Yandex Crawlers
A chart based on Cloudflare data circulated online showing a reduction in bot traffic associated with Yandex servers after the reported drone strikes. The chart prompted speculation that Russian-operated bot networks used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories had gone offline.
However, the account antibot4navalny said the chart measures automated requests from Yandex web crawlers rather than social media manipulation. These crawlers can index websites for search engines and support other automated services, although bots can also be used for malicious activities.
The chart specifically tracks traffic associated with Yandex, rather than overall bot activity originating in Russia. Cloudflare’s separate data on Russian bot traffic reportedly showed no comparable change around the attacks.
Reddit Activity Claims Face Scrutiny
The account Reddit Lies also challenged claims that the Yandex data-center outages caused Reddit activity to decline. According to its post, the analysis examined around 1,000 subreddits and highlighted 90 that recorded lower activity on all three days of the attacks.
Reddit Lies argued that these declines do not establish a connection to the strikes. Activity in individual subreddits can change for various reasons, including political events and differences in user engagement. The data cited in the post therefore does not establish that Russian disinformation bots caused the reported declines or that the attacks measurably reduced their activity.
The account cited political disputes in r/de, budget week in r/irishpolitics, and elections in r/czech. It concluded that the analysis found no measurable effect of the strikes on Reddit activity.
The reported decline in Yandex-related traffic has fueled speculation about the impact of the Ukrainian strikes on Russian online influence operations. However, the available data does not establish that the disruption affected Russian disinformation bots on Reddit or caused activity to fall across subreddits. Without direct evidence linking the infrastructure outages to changes in coordinated online behavior, claims that the strikes disrupted these networks remain unverified.
Related: The Open Web Is Shrinking: Reddit Kills RSS As AI Bots Take Over The Internet
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