Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 10 hrs ago
Yandex outages cut some automated internet traffic, but social bot claims remain unproven
Ukraine has attacked data centres run by Yandex, a major Russian internet company.
After the attacks, Cloudflare recorded a small fall in overall automated internet traffic and a much sharper drop in traffic from Yandex.
Yandex said it was working to restore its services, with some still offline on Sunday.
Online users have claimed that fewer automated accounts are posting replies on social media.
But Cloudflare’s figures include many kinds of automated systems, not just social media accounts.
These systems can spread misinformation, but they also perform tasks such as updating search engines and gathering data for artificial intelligence.
The figures therefore do not show that social media bots or misinformation have declined.
Cloudflare data shows automated traffic from Yandex fell to nearly zero after attacks on the company’s data centres.
Yandex said it was working to restore access to its services, some of which remained offline.
The data does not establish that social media bots or misinformation have decreased.
Cloudflare’s bot-traffic measure includes automated systems used for many purposes, including web crawling.
- Who
- Yandex, the Russian internet company, and Ukraine, which is carrying out attacks on Russian internet infrastructure.
- What
- Attacks on Yandex data centres were followed by a sharp fall in automated traffic from Yandex.
- When
- The traffic drop was visible on Sunday morning after the attack. The article was published on October 12, 2026.
- Where
- Yandex data centres and internet services in Russia.
- Why
- The attacks are part of a broad effort by Ukraine to target Russia’s internet infrastructure.
Social media users claiming bot activity has fallen
Independent's analysis
Extent of change
Social media users claiming bot activity has fallen
Some users say they have seen fewer automated replies and posts on social media.
Independent's analysis
Cloudflare data shows a fall in general automated traffic, especially from Yandex, but does not establish a fall in social media bots.
Meaning of the data
Social media users claiming bot activity has fallen
Users cite the change as evidence that automated social media accounts have decreased.
Independent's analysis
The data includes automated traffic used for many purposes, including web crawling, and does not show whether misinformation has declined.
Cloudflare data showed automated traffic from Yandex falling sharply.
Yandex traffic in Cloudflare’s data dropped to nearly zero and had not returned to normal levels.
Yandex said it was working to restore access to its services, some of which remained offline.
- Traffic measure
- Cloudflare data showed a small reduction in overall bot traffic.
- Yandex traffic
- Fell to nearly zero on Sunday morning after the attack.
- Affected services
- Some Yandex services were still offline on Sunday.
- Social media claims
- The data does not prove that social media bots or misinformation decreased.
- Automated traffic uses
- Includes crawlers used to update search engines and collect data for AI systems.
What people are saying
working to restore access to its services
Sources
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