r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 18h ago

Society Ukraine Struck Yandex Data Centers, Russian Bots Went Silent—Now Questions Are Mounting

https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/ukraine-struck-yandex-data-centers-russian-bots-went-silent-now-questions-are-mounting-23339
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348

u/crash41301 17h ago

They easily could. Do you not remember when X / Twitter did this and walked it back immediately once it was clear their platform was mostly bot and foreign influencing parading as American? 

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u/Thefrayedends 17h ago

There's a reason many subs made it against the rules to call out bots and shills lol.

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u/DidIJustWitnessThat 17h ago

Got banned yesterday from a sub for doing just that. Lol.

The Internet is dead, about the only thing we can do now is help accelerate it's downfall.

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u/BerryLanky 17h ago edited 10h ago

I’ve been part of Reddit subs with two hundred people. Then overnight it jumped to thousands. And we got flooded with posts. Once you realize at least half the users on any given thread are bots you start to question why you are wasting your time. You might be the only human in a comment section

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u/goblin_humppa27 16h ago

I had a weird black mirror type experience where I tried to call out a bot, and more bots replied to me. Their responses didn't even follow what I said.

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u/Mojozilla 9h ago

I have been part of this happening in real time on reddit. Lol a person asked a question about files and the bot lost the plot and started saying weird shit like "my boss is so silly, but he's a good boss"...in a menopause sub 🤣🤣 the bot glitched a few times. I reported it and by the time I came back a few seconds later, the bot was banned.

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u/Mojozilla 16h ago

I was banned from r/deadinternettheory for saying that I've noticed all the Trump signs have been taken down in Arkansas.

OP of that thread asked if ppl think all of the trump supporters are bots. I answered and got banned. And muted so I couldn't say anything. I think that sub is sus.

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u/DidIJustWitnessThat 16h ago

Wouldnt even remotely surprise me to find out that the sub about the Internet just being bots is completely run by bots. Lol.

The irony even. :)

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u/ThinkTheUnknown 12h ago

Looks like you’re on to something.

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/s/4zawBOr5sZ

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u/Mojozilla 9h ago

Damn! These mods are banning this news and comments. Ugh. Sometimes I even see them in niche subs, bringing up political crap. It's been a nice couple days without their rabid behavior

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u/Mediocre-Touch-6133 14h ago

Same. I'm banned from askreddit, pourstea, pics and probably several other subs for calling out bots. I've received 3-day suspensions for "abusing the report feature" before. Reddit wants the bots.

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u/Grow_away_420 17h ago

Traffic and engagement go up, shareholders happy.

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u/Melicor 16h ago

At a certain point it's just defrauding investors.

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u/Grow_away_420 15h ago

Investors live in the future. They don't notice they're holding the bag until the bottom falls out from under them

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u/marktrot 17h ago

Any subs in particular we should know about?

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u/Odd-String29 17h ago

/r/conservative is one that is mostly bots talking to themselves 

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u/ChicagoThrowaway422 16h ago

Tiny, non-political, hobby subreddits aren't targeted by bot farms. That's all I know.

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u/how-does-this-end 16h ago

r/politics banned me for suggesting someone was a shill in 2016

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u/Intrepid_Year3765 15h ago

to be fair everyone on that sub is a shill, so your point is moot

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u/sausage_king_of_kc 17h ago

all of them.

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u/IAmASolipsist 16h ago

A lot of that though is that even before bots were prevalent the most immature people assume anyone who disagrees with the mist be a bor or a shill. It's just not a productive thing to say and more of a thought terminating statement for someone who doesn't know how to respond to dismiss someone else.

What we really need is the ability to report a suspected bot for Reddit to check. I have encountered people that were pretty clearly botting because anyone disagreeing with them even days after a post was made and deep in the comments, would get an instant 6-10 down votes and a bunch of low effort comments spammed attacking you. Like, people can disagree, but a two upvoter post isn't getting that many people 10 comments deep continuously for days.

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u/Thefrayedends 16h ago

It's one of those catch 22 situations, you're fucked if you do, you're fucked if you don't. Some subs arrived at it organically as a form of healthy moderation, and others went there as a form of censorship.

Because yes, I've been called a bot, especially for my more structured posts, even with the old ass account and decade and a half of consistent coherence. I've been told a few times that I talk like ChatGPT, despite having never even used that service once lol. Calling someone a bot is just as effective at shutting down a conversation as derailing it or shadow banning it.

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u/fuck-nazi 16h ago

…. Exactly what a BOT would say! 😂

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u/notmyworkaccount5 16h ago

That and allowing hiding post history, way way way easier to bots and bad faith actors to hide when you can't see their post history without a 3rd party method.

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u/end_of_radio 16h ago

I think a happy medium where one can see the post history but maybe with scrambled text would be nice. I live somewhere with a handful of people and I have an obscure job so im very doxable.

Then at least you know im an actual long time poster.

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u/TheG00dF1ght 15h ago

I hide my history not because I'm a bot but because I mod a nsfw sub and people would go digging and then try and derail the conversation because, heaven forbid, I mod a sub they don't agree with.

It's just easier to keep things on topic and not get hit with personal attacks.

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u/Sherry_Brandt 17h ago

what about reporting them instead

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u/redmongrel 16h ago

I’m still banned from r/news for doing that years ago.

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u/slow70 16h ago

^ dingdingding

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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 17h ago

They also targeted hate speech and it was disproportionately banning conservatives.

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u/crash41301 17h ago

Certainly sends a message about your beliefs then huh

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u/JoeNoble1973 15h ago

That’s why they stopped

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u/RGrad4104 16h ago

More users means a larger market segment and a higher valuation. Why would any corporation want to intentionally diminish it's size if not forced to do so?

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u/Few-Improvement-5655 16h ago

Twitch also banned bots and immediately had to roll it back when all their big stars lost 25-75% of their subscribers.

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u/Jason1920 16h ago
  1. They estimated that around 23 million accounts were bots. Probably much worse now.

Twitter / X has been bots talking to bots for a long time. Practically, a useless site.

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u/Unfair_Web_8275 15h ago

Reddit also used to have (third party apps) that could tag users.

The owners got rid of it for a reason.