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
37.9k Upvotes

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u/HeavyMetalDoug 17h ago

How can I spot bots? I've no idea how people can spot them so easy

133

u/nonlawyer 15h ago

It got a lot harder when Reddit started allowing hidden comment histories. 

But the misfires are still kinda obvious, usually a TwoWords_bunchaNumbers account that’s relatively young and making comments that sound very generic or off topic.  

Usually boosting one of the Russian-aligned rightwing parties like the GOP, AfD, Reform etc. Or indirectly by pretending to be a lefty with “concerns” about their opposition.

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u/CvieYltidrekoof 14h ago

Reddit was better when default usernames were downvoted. 

30

u/Sensitive_File6582 14h ago

Reddit was better when it showed IP addresses so you could see which governments were using it by how much.

But that’s one of the many reasons why Swartz was swartzed 

6

u/shea241 13h ago

when did it show ip addresses?

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u/Bobthebrain2 12h ago

Well well well, what do we have here hey. Word_word and a bunch of numbers…bet if we were to show you 9 photos of the streets, you couldn’t find the crosswalks or bicycles in any of them.

4

u/Sensitive_File6582 11h ago

Your posts are hidden, mine are not.  Bob I think you’re the bot.

Also because you did not address what I said.

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u/Bobthebrain2 11h ago edited 11h ago

Nyet! Mine are hidden, because bots like to scrap them to feed us humans targeted ads.

Time to send your bot-ness into overdrive. Slava Ukraini.

4

u/Sensitive_File6582 10h ago

I use brave browser…. I haven’t seen ads since 2017.

As a side note tv advertisements also piss me off as until about 6 months ago I hadn’t had to see them either. 

Hell until 2014 I didn’t even know what Taylor swift looked like.

1

u/KeyMyBike 4h ago

Bots use third party websites that aggregate your comments more succinctly, and you have no option available to you to stop it.

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u/Sensitive_File6582 4h ago

Idc if they use my posts. Consciousness is possibly a non local phenomenon 

1

u/couldbemage 3h ago edited 3h ago

Your posts aren't actually hidden, they can still be easily scraped.

Hidden history is only a mild deterrent to human reddit users, and had no effect on bots searching reddit.

Edit: here's a reply from you several months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/1s1jdc9/hackers_exploit_security_testing_apps_to_breach/

Annoying to find for a casual human user, but right out in the open for data scraping bots.

0

u/Acceptable-Fig2884 5h ago

Bots are better at capchas than humans. They don't actually test what they're asking, they test the user activity while answering.

1

u/DanNorder 2h ago

Aaron Swartz swartzed himself because he was caught intentionally stealing on a massive scale and might have actually had to face the repercussions of his criminal activity. When spoiled rich kids get arrested and realize that they weren't as immune from consequences as they thought they were, it can cause a total breakdown. I wish more rich people would face justice for their crimes.

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u/Responsible-Offer724 14h ago

The signup process makes it really easy to accidentally accept the default name and as soon as you do there’s no way to go back. I’ve been using Reddit for 20 years most of my old accounts have been banned for various reasons and now I’m stuck with this one because you can’t create accounts without emails anymore 

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u/limbodog 13h ago

If you're making a new account, you can just delete it and start over having lost nothing, no?

7

u/BasicMatter7339 12h ago

Well you can make new burner emails in like 5 minutes so if you want to keep on ragebaiting it doesnt take that much longer anymore.

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u/jackofslayers 12h ago

I am sorry for your mistake, but you classified yourself as a bot.

-1

u/Responsible-Offer724 6h ago

Many new users click through. And bots can easily set actual user names. I wouldn’t be so sure of your rule. 

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u/jackofslayers 6h ago

Says the default username on a young account

1

u/Emotional-Power-7242 11h ago

You can still create accounts with a throwaway address from some 10 minute mail site. Most sites that require email for signup ban emails from those domains but reddit for now doesn't care.

0

u/Primary_Engine_9273 12h ago

Yeah apparently my account is 6 years old. I don't even remember signing up, I think initially I just looked at Reddit when I saw a link to it in an article or something idk, and I guess for some reason I wanted to post and one thing leads to another, this account with my normal email has this word word number username and people like the other poster for some reason auto assume I'm a bot.

0

u/jackofslayers 12h ago

you are a bot.

You can easily make a new account with a real username if you do not associated with bots.

3

u/Primary_Engine_9273 12h ago

If username is your demarcation point between bot and human, you... do realize people can choose a non word word number username for a bot account... right?

1

u/CvieYltidrekoof 12h ago

It’s more complex and depends on the person. 

You don’t seem like a bot to me. 

1

u/LifeguardDry7372 11h ago

how can I change mine? I changed one but it won't let me change my display name, I think that's what it's called

0

u/BasicMatter7339 12h ago

I've used reddit for 9 years and i dont remember a time like that

though i wasnt really particularly active before making my current burner.

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u/jackofslayers 12h ago

Begone default username. Humans are talking

0

u/BasicMatter7339 12h ago

This is not robot teaparty sparkbags. This is robot war!