🇷🇺🤖🇺🇦 No, a Yandex cloud malfunction did not take down disinformation/troll bots. It's a dangerous misconception.

This is not how it works, not even technically. After Ukrainian drones hit Yandex data centers, a viral chart showed Russian "bot traffic" collapsing. But those bots are mostly Yandex's own search crawlers, not the info-ops social media accounts.

Troll farms hide behind proxies, hijacked devices and Western clouds. They're still operating. Hired influencers are also still around. The "bots went silent" story is misinformation. Believing it is plainly dangerous. It tells people the threat is gone while influence operations keep going. Ahead of elections that complacency is what they may count on.

🔗 Lukasz Olejnik