TECHNOLOGY · ANALYSIS
Yandex outage: a decline in bots does not prove a decline in disinformation
The Verge reports that a chart linked to attacks on Russian data centers measures requests from Yandex bots. Its interpretation as proof of a collapse in disinformation activity on social media has not been established.
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A chart circulating on social media links a drop in Yandex's automated traffic to attacks on Russian data centers. According to The Verge, interpreting it as proof of a massive decline in disinformation operations rests on confusion between different automated activities.
The outlet reports antibot4navalny's analysis: the chart measures requests from Yandex web crawlers, rather than the activity of social media accounts. Its scope is limited to traffic associated with Yandex. The Verge adds that, according to Cloudflare, automated activity originating from Russia as a whole remains largely unchanged around the attacks.
Another chart shared by MEP Tomáš Zdechovský also has traceability problems. Computer science researcher Raphael Wimmer suspects an AI-generated image, but that origin has not been demonstrated. The provenance of the data has not been established, and the original image does not mention the German AfD party with which it was subsequently associated.
Service disruptions are a more directly reported effect: The Verge says Yandex Pay remains affected, preventing transfers and purchases, among other things. These difficulties do not, however, allow conclusions about changes in influence campaigns. The analysis requires preserving the exact scope of each measurement before drawing a political conclusion.