Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 2 hrs ago
Yandex outage did not show a broad drop in Russian bot activity
Ukrainian drone strikes over the last week took Russian data centers offline, including systems operated by Yandex, a major technology company.
A chart circulating online appeared to show bot traffic dropping after the attacks, leading some people to link it to Russian disinformation activity.
The chart measured automated Yandex web crawlers, which can index websites or provide customer support, as well as be used for harmful purposes.
It did not track social media bots or Russian bot activity as a whole.
Cloudflare data showed that bot activity from Russia overall remained largely unchanged around the attacks.
Another image said to show a fall in online activity around Germany’s far-right AfD party has an unclear origin and may be AI-generated, according to a computer scientist who noted inconsistencies in it.
Most Yandex systems still appeared to be offline, and the company’s fintech head said there was no precise timeline for restoring its payment service.
Multiple Ukrainian drone strikes over the last week took Russian data centers offline, but the available data did not show a broad drop in Russian bot activity.
A widely shared chart showed a decline in automated requests from Yandex web crawlers, not social media bots, according to antibot4navalny.
Cloudflare data indicated that bot activity across Russia remained largely unchanged around the data center attacks.
Computer scientist Raphael Wimmer said another chart about activity around Germany’s AfD party appeared to be AI-generated and had an unclear source.
Many Yandex-operated systems remained offline, including Yandex Pay, leaving users unable to transfer funds, check balances or make purchases.
- Who
- Yandex and users of its services; the chart’s claims were challenged by antibot4navalny and computer scientist Raphael Wimmer.
- What
- Data did not show a broad decline in Russian bot activity after drone strikes took Russian data centers offline. Yandex services, including Yandex Pay, remained affected.
- When
- The strikes took place over the week before the article was published on October 12, 2026.
- Where
- Russia; the claims about online activity also concerned Germany’s AfD party.
- Why
- The decline in the shared chart reflected automated Yandex web-crawler requests, not social media bot activity. The cause of the reported Yandex outage was the drone strikes.
People claiming the charts show a drop in Russian disinformation bots
antibot4navalny and Cloudflare
Meaning of the Yandex chart
People claiming the charts show a drop in Russian disinformation bots
The chart shows a sharp decline in Russian bot activity after attacks on Yandex servers.
antibot4navalny and Cloudflare
The chart measures automated requests from Yandex web crawlers, and Cloudflare data shows Russian bot activity remained largely unchanged.
Could we (and especially politicians, journalists and scientists who should know better) please stop sharing unverified images?
we can’t yet give you a precise restoration timeline, but we promise: we won’t stop until the service is restored.
Multiple Ukrainian drone strikes took Russian data centers offline.
A chart citing Cloudflare data circulated on social media, showing a decline in bot traffic following attacks on Yandex servers.
The Verge reported that the data did not show a broad decline in Russian bot activity and that many Yandex-operated systems remained offline.
- Yandex chart
- Measured automated requests from Yandex web crawlers
- Russian bot activity
- Largely unchanged around the data center attacks, according to Cloudflare
- Affected service
- Yandex Pay
- AfD chart
- Source was not established; Wimmer suspected it was AI-generated
- Article publication
- October 12, 2026
Sources
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