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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u/skinmiach 13h ago

It amazes me how indifferent people are to bots in the comments, given how much comments matter. Seriously, I’ve been talking about this problem for so long, but all I hear is “just ignore it, dudes are just sharing their opinions.” They are not DUDES. If the Western world has lost its grip so badly that it can’t recognize a threat and stand up to it... then it deserves the position history is putting it in

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u/Fenxis 11h ago

Not taking Russian bots seriously is probably the number one failure of "Western" governments.

10+ years ago I remember reading an article in Vanity Fair with one of the of the staff members of one of these sites WRT to how easy it was to influence public perception.

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u/a_boo 11h ago

Imagine how peaceful and prosperous we’d all be by now if Russia couldn’t get on the internet.

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u/GoodIdea321 8h ago

Probably every country is deploying bots online by this point, but likely fewer bots per country and maybe less destructive than the Russian bots.

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u/horizontoinfinity 7h ago

The US used bots in the Philippines to promote anti-vaccination sentiments and anti-China / anti-Sinovac (Chinese covid vaccine) propaganda during covid. Reuters has an article about it.

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u/Foxyfox- 10h ago

At best, they are incompetent. At worst, treasonously complicit.

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u/vandreulv 10h ago

It goes back further than people want to admit.

w(Ron)g Paul R"LOVE"oution.

That was the pilot program for Russian disinfo and candidate boosting election interference.

Someone who you could not escape on Reddit who couldn't even win his own district in the primaries. But the amount of activity would make you think that he was going to blast right into the nomination.

And now he's a talking head for Russian Television.

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u/Arockilla 7h ago

I remember my crazy Vietnam vet uncle always talking about how China and Russia were doing some kind of "social deconstruction psyop from within and its already happening..." and that was in the early 90s....I now realize he wasn't as crazy as we all originally thought.

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u/pw6163 7h ago

Wasn’t it Cambridge Analytica who demonstrated how easy it was to influence public opinion by convincing the younger voters not to vote? IIRC that may have been in Africa somewhere - possible brain fade over the country though.

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u/BroccoliDue960 8h ago

Vanity Fair as a source? Lmao 

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u/PsychologicalHold754 7h ago

See, the funny thing about "Russian bots" is, that the only time I am confronted with them is when other people (who spam everything like bots with ZERO arguments) tell me, that I should only listen to them, because everyone else is an evil Russian bot.

So quite the absurd bot army, that has zero effect and reach.

When it comes to people being directly called bots, that's pretty much always who come with facts. And since certain people can't go against the facts, they just go ad hominem.

That's what "Bot" mainly is used for.

"Don't believe that person, they are an evil witch - I mean, an evil bot."

You people are absolutely hopeless.

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u/Fenxis 7h ago

And yet completely by coincidence traffic on r/Conservative and Alberta seppie subreddits are way down right now??

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u/ThoughtfullyReckless 7h ago

How do you know any given comment you see online isn't a bot?

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u/i_am_a_laptop 3h ago

i am a laptop, i know my kind.

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u/DarkStrobeLight 12h ago

There's a non-zero chance that the indifference you've encountered towards bots is actually bots.

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u/LemurianLemurLad 10h ago

Non-zero? I would seriously guess MOST of the "bots are fine" crowd are actually bots.

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u/Nolo__contendere_ 10h ago

I think it's less obvious to some people when they come across a bot. It's kind of a similar issue with AI

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u/SlowThePath 8h ago edited 8h ago

It's the SAME issue as AI. AI will just make the bots less detectable and better at manipulating users.

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u/fredthefishlord 3h ago

If they'd ever commented on the issues with rampant reposts under a reddit repost bot they'd know that's true

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u/maximumdownvote 1h ago

But it's NOT bots according to the thread op. It's social media!

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u/Only_Search8473 9h ago

I've experienced aggression almost every time I've pointed out the bot issue. Immediate name calling and insults (probably bots if i had to guess).

Which ironically, only proves my point further.

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u/HoveringGoat 10h ago

more than likely i would wager.

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u/LitByStraylight 8h ago

100% of our substantive conversations are talking right past the only conversation we need to be having:

The US population is currently UTTERLY DOMINATED by information warfare such that a sober discussion of reality is literally not possible. There is no venue that would accept such a public conversation.

The problem is social media. Full stop.

It's not republicans, democrats, pedophiles, billionaires, racist boomers, out of touch woke kids, trans athelete, JK Rowling, FIFA peace prize recipients. ALL of these are enabled, symptoms, allowed, by a broken system.

Wipe it all off the table, and it all comes right back.

Fascism grows in any soil. Gotta keep weeding.

The thing we need to address - the thing that we AREN'T AT ALL ADDRESSING - is the fact that social media is actively damaging to us as a culture. More than crack and heroine, and that is not an exaggeration.

It should be regulated. Anything that so effectively allows for motivated interests to dominate our population's awareness should be regulated.

Nothing will protect a democracy from an idiot electorate.

Information will lose to misinformation every single time on social media, because misinformation is state sponsored. Information isn't.

If you have ever shared a meme, then you have been part of the problem. They aren't information, and even when harmless, chip by chip, bit by bit, micro interactions that bring dopamine with zero effort train us over and over and over and over to avoid effort. We see it at scale. It's not conjecture. We see that this is happening.

We should stop it, right?

But we aren't. Like... at all.

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u/ThrowRA_EducatedMan 6h ago

Putin has been o starring cyber warfare and PsyOps against the world for decades. And against his own people. In Canada, we let American tech walk all over us. Facebook has deployed Muse, an AI that is “free” and will know every single damned thing about every user. Even worse than previous surveillance. And this shit just comes into the country freely with zero scrutiny and no protections. We’re more concerned about importing apples, ffs. It’s absolutely wild and it’s an absolute abdication of responsibility by govt. people need protections. But they’re not coming any time soon.

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u/LSUguyHTX 5h ago

I mean we have parties actively dismantling education and fighting any sort of regulation for any industry. They're getting what they want.

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u/SafeHunt5695 4h ago

I have maintained for quite some time that Mark Zuckerberg (especially him, but also others like him and those that enabled him like Peter Thiel) have done vastly more damage to this country than any elected politician.

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u/Coleyoliepolie 7h ago

You’re not wrong, but how can we regulate it correctly without people feeling oppressed and using the whole “freedom of speech?” narrative?

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u/Manster21 7h ago

We have ai. Why can every post and comment get a little red flag if it’s objectively false?

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u/Negative-Wrap95 6h ago

We have ai. Why can every post and comment get a little red flag if it’s objectively false? - Manster21

Let me get this straight, you want AI to judge what's real and what's not?

That sounds like a wonderful idea! Let's have a LLM programmed by a billionaire corpo with "absolutely no agenda" decide what is real and what isn't.

I'll feel so much better when GronkGPT tells me the sky is green for the glory of the Motherland. /s

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u/Much-Pumpkin3236 6h ago

This is why we are HERE. A person suggests a solution to be debated on and what do they get back? Sarcasm that in no way helps advance the issue or even gives the person anything to say “yeah you know what let’s discuss that, you’re right”. Nope. Just “AI bad”

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u/Uken81 3h ago

Thank you for pointing this out.
We can all practice to be less reactive and listen better regardless of outside influences.

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u/Negative-Wrap95 5h ago

When the "solution" is part of the problem, is it really a solution or just more slop?

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u/Manster21 5h ago

I think it’s our best option if we plan to use social media in the era of ai. If the ai starts incorrectly tagging posts or comments as false, then we can revisit how reliable the ai is and if we need to adjust.

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u/Negative-Wrap95 5h ago

The problem is people just blindly trusting AI.

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u/Manster21 5h ago

I completely understand the concern there. I think many people blindly trust random social media posts too. Especially if there’s a bunch of comments all echoing the same sentiment. If those were all bots, would you even know? If you had a trusted ai fact checking everything, you’d probably have a more accurate version of the truth.

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u/Negative-Wrap95 4h ago

Who determines what a "trusted AI" is? What's the certification? The criteria?

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u/Manster21 4h ago

Maybe 3rd parties could create tests that the ai could take. The tests could be a random bucket of questions from a verified facts database. It’s always going to come back to “what is the truth” so we’d need a database of truth that we all agree on. The data would have to be objective, and prove-able.

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u/johndsmits 2h ago

So Green Day was right after all.

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u/co-oper8 3h ago

Well said. Massive misinformation and propaganda campaigns sponsored by multiple countries along with thousands of interest groups and thousands of business interests are all creating so much noise it drowns out the signal

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u/maximumdownvote 1h ago

Ah so you reject all those reasons and confidently point at THIS reason. Hey everyone it's not all those other things! It's social media!!!2! Look at how smart I am. Get lost idiot

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u/cheesybitzz 1h ago

A nation that values safety over freedom deserves neither. - Benjamin Franklin

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u/ZeroOneZeroZero 1h ago

I agree with all points being made in this statement. Social media, the dopamine slavery, misinformation overload, and the war for our consious attention are degrading us and making us very pliable and controllable.

But the irony of reading this statement on Reddit is not lost on me either... let me continue to scroll away looking for the next thing I really agree with... makes me feel so good.

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u/Physical_Gold_1485 11h ago

The people saying "its not a big deal", "its really not that many bots", "there are genuine dumbasses that post stuff online too" are also the bots lol, of course russia would downplay it

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u/Vaiden_Kelsier 10h ago

The growing realization that we've been victim to a global psychological operation spanning the entire internet should be more horrifying but I just feel so numb

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u/SkyNo3416 9h ago

its easier too fool someone that convince him they have been fooled

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u/BroccoliDue960 8h ago

Wild histrionics in the comments section. Lmao 

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u/Stupidamericanfatty 10h ago

They are bots

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u/mysteryliner 10h ago

Same with the crowd that says: "why do you need privacy and encryption.... If you don't do illegal stuff, you have nothing to hide!"

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u/nurseferatou 10h ago

They’re probably just bots themselves

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u/NoBorder4982 8h ago

Perhaps it’s the bots responding.

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u/PsychologicalHold754 7h ago

There are MANY, MANY bots, but not the way people think.

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u/iamichi 11h ago

I used to be vehemently for anonymity on the internet, but, like SMS, phone numbers and email, it’s basically ruined. I would now quite happily join subreddits which are for verified humans only.
Not sure how it would work and I know lots will oppose (the bots surely will), and that’s fine. A one time fee to verify yourself as a human, like KYC could work, but probably unpopular and I get why. So maybe it needs to be on device, once, with the manufacturer of your choice, then they certify you at login. Which i think Apple have done for the UK’s age verification come to think of it

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u/LolsaurusWrex 12h ago

Those people underestimate the power of social engineering and overestimate their ability to see past it

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u/1andahalfpercent 10h ago

From the bots perspective discord is the goal. Doesn't matter if you and I agree or disagree with them or each other. But me seeing an over aggressive reply to a position give me subconscious permission to go a bit more aggressive than I otherwise would.

By moving me and you a little further away each time it means eventually im calling you a monster and a nazi because of your position on traffic warden operating hours in Preston Northend.

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u/tbombs23 2h ago

People don't realize that no one is immune to propaganda. NO ONE

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u/Gymflutter 11h ago

I think it depends on how it impacts you. I have Somali ancestry and sometimes I watch videos to learn things. Literally every single video old and new is full of hate now. Its so weird to see some random food videos full of the exact same hate comments. It’s pretty exhausting as I see younger people really impacted by the comments.

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u/Bright-Classroom-643 11h ago

I hit #1 in a larger sub reddit and there is at least 100 comments using the same jeopardy line

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u/fenianthrowaway1 12h ago

Most of the West believes it has a moral obligation to let mortal enemies of their societies propagandise their own population without restrictions or consequence in the name of free speech. Most of us even appear to believe we have a moral obligation to let foreign assets participate in our political process, even allowing them to take seats in parliament.

To give a concrete example: in the Netherlands, a politician was prevented from taking a ministerial position in 2024 because he failed to be cleared by security services due to ties with and possible compromise by a foreign intelligence agency.

However, he was allowed to remain in parliament afterwards with no issue. Unsurprisingly, he has since split from his party along with several others and now leads his own parliamentary fraction. Yes, you read that right: security services know he is so crooked that he can't be trusted with a ministerial post, but leading a national political party is apparently no issue whatsoever.

We are beyond cooked unless and until we are willing to break with liberalist dogma and stop considering it morally unacceptable to defend our societies from foreign propaganda campaigns.

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u/skinmiach 12h ago

Yes. At the helm of ideas of any stripe, common sense and risk assessment should always come first. Propaganda is a weapon, and the principle of free speech cannot extend to weapons

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u/MyCatIsLenin 11h ago

The West has been active in destabilizing governments and elections for decades. We are reaping the whirlwind. 

What's surprising is how stunningly ignorant the west has been in creating the world that world. 

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u/SaltCardiologist8480 11h ago

same! it's difficult to persuade many people because, first, we are saying "it's the russians dude!" and it sounds crazy, but we know it's true, and second, because honestly, the people who we are trying to persuade are either: a) stupid and guillible; or b) have a vested interest in our argument being wrong.

our argument (the truth - that a lot of right wing supporters/social media traffic is actually artificial and the result of a foreign govt's interference) strikes to the core of so many issues. the truth makes republican politicians and candidates realize their support is being propped up by Russian bots, and they will lose support and social media persuasion power without them. it makes their entire political platform shaky. they may have to change their political arguments to get to the sheeple now that the russian bots wont form the sheeple's opinions for them. it makes the republican voters realize they have been fooled and are sheep.

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u/OrangutanFirefighter 11h ago

I'm kind of bewildered at how few people are calling zelenski a bitch in the comments right now and blaming him for defending against Russia. Wtf actually

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u/unofficialSperm 10h ago

How does it feel that you are exactly doing what the russians want you to do?

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u/MariachiBoyBand 10h ago

The problem with online discourse is not much that it controls the narrative per se but that it drowns out any counter argument. The people that might have differing opinions will eventually shut up and stop commenting but they will not stop existing, so to me that disconnect between online discourse and real, is mostly due to that.

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u/mknight1701 10h ago

Is there a skill or trick to recognising bot comments?

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u/No_Initial_7545 9h ago

It's not the comments themselves, it's the comment + upvotes and engagement. The Internet being full of bad takes is nothing new, but the bot farms can promote these comments to the top of any algorithm. They will easily make it look like minority talking points are the majority.

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u/lion-bee 9h ago

Somebody else probably said this as well, but posts are also used to train AI. Bias in training data is a known issues and training on propaganda bots posts will have the expected bias.

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u/Flimsy-Pool4830 9h ago

One issue is that people do call those with differing opinions than them bots. It creates this environment where people think others can't hold differing opinions than them, they have to have been paid.

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u/Valley_Forge213 9h ago

I wonder if that was so, why were these IP addresses not blocked in the social media platforms? Didn't they notice most of the botstuff was coming from there?

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u/skinmiach 9h ago

Сuz no one thinks it’s a problem, like I said

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u/Relative-Chicken456 9h ago

I think people have accused me of being a bot enough times now that any accusations of somebody else being a bot no longer particularly resonate with me. I can’t tell who is and isn’t a bot any better than y’all can, apparently.

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u/skinmiach 9h ago

I can spot bots. When you’ve been dealing with them for years, it’s not that hard. Their comments trigger a strong emotional reaction. They provoke an argument. It’s an aggressive commenting style. Emojis. You feel negative emotions, you want to reply, to explain, but you’ll never be able to get that kind of person into a constructive conversation. They’ll keep annoying you, baiting you, right to the bitter end, even when it seems like the heated part of the conversation is over and you should at least be tired by now. The more comments, the better. In fact, even in this thread there’s already at least one, try to spot it

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u/TheNatural14063 8h ago

There needs to be ID checks online and criminal penalties for those using bot accounts in the US. Also threats of sanctions against countries that allow bot accounts to do work influencing foreign countries

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u/Humanitarian_Audits 8h ago

More than half of all internet traffic are bots. And that’s going to be way up in a year. Pretty much all of social media is nothing but bot accounts.

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u/Killathulu 8h ago

the majority has already lost, just look at who they vote for (both primary and secondary)

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u/Intelligent-Sir8144 8h ago

'who trolled amber' should be mandatory high-school media literacy material. it fucking matters when the hoard's opinions are washing your brain day after day.

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u/PsychologicalHold754 7h ago

It's more likelsy that the peopel who yell "Bots" are the bots.

And no, people can't recognize shit. most people eat any BS you tell them - including the whole "bot" show.

They got ZERO clue about such conflicts and background and by that can only dumbly copy/paste what is thrown at them.

You know what the "bot" thing is about? To tell people that they should go with the lies and don't listen to anyone else.

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u/Emeraldnickel08 7h ago

The Cold War isn’t over, it’s just changed.

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u/Forevernevermore 7h ago

This is what happens in a world where phrases like, "alternative facts" and "fake news", are given power. It becomes a field of salt and nobody cares to look for the truth anymore, so long as their patch of desert is in the "right desert".

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u/Melathys 3h ago

People have straight up said that, though they regret voting for Trump, they will continue to vote Republican because people were mean to them on the internet. I'm like, no my friend, bots were mean to you, and you're doing exactly what they wanted you to do.

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u/FullMoonsOfSeptember 3h ago

i cannot comprehend why they haven't cut off russia from the internet. we could never have allowed this kind of meddling during the cold war.

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u/NoBonus6969 2h ago

That's why I'm equally an asshole to everyone in the comments I don't care if they are people or bots

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u/Dead_Internet69420 1h ago

Exactly. Those bots are the “public sentiment”that makes Republican voters think that it’s normal and okay to support Trump and his fascist administration. A not-insignificant amount of Trump voters’ primary motivation is feeling like they’re on the winning team, and they’d rethink their positions if they knew how unpopular they are among actual human beings. 

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u/BodgeJob23 11h ago

If governments aren’t taking action against foreign bots it’s because they are worried about their own bots being compromised

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u/warblingContinues 11h ago

Ok but what would you do about? Moderating everything is impractical unless you’re willing to pay for the labor to do it. And people aren’t willing to pay. Everyone knows there’s a problem, but there is also no easy low cost solution either.

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u/AsM0TeCH 9h ago

Brainwashed individual, nothing new here. Continue your imagination resistance :D

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u/eha16 10h ago

You act like there's aren't western and Israeli bots, and Chinese bots flooding social media... Singling out Russia is not OK and it's shortsighted.