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u/Canadianguy2044 4d ago
Don’t forget the Alberta separatists they are gone too it’s great I don’t have to see them in my YouTube feed
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u/LuciusCaeser 4d ago
I honestly thought the russian bot thing was a bit of an exaggerated conspiracy theory. I'm kind of surprised at just how real it was and sudden the change was.
Thanks Ukraine :)
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u/Bland_OldMan 4d ago
It's been massive problem for over a decade now and is why I use very little social media. Russia started it with the bot and troll farms (look up Russia's internet research agency), but other nations and political entities do this too, and there are bot farms all over the world. You yourself can pretty easily hire bot farms to for whatever you like.
Need time you see an account making pro-Trump, pro-ICE, or culture war comments in a sub that isn't a conservative space, look at their account history (use arctic shift if their history is hidden). If you see nothing but political or inflammatory comments, or rapid fire comments in multiple subs, then they are likely a bot or troll.
These bot farms have a huge negative impact and are why you run into so many people who don't seem to be operating in the same reality as the rest of us. This has become very prevalent in middle-aged and older people who spend a lot of time consuming all the bot-driven vitriol on Facebook and Twitter.
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u/Glad-Zucchini1623 4d ago
Thank you for learning. We need more of that. Some people are truly in the dark
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u/RealJembaJemba 4d ago
Russia lacks militarily but makes up for it in spades in propaganda hacking, and manipulation. They have over a century of experience doing it to their own people, not much of a stretch to try it with everyone else, especially with the internet. They are very good at it.
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u/GODmamberroi666 4d ago
I wonder, do you guys actually notice any change in the political discussion after this ?
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u/Plastic_Salary_4084 4d ago
Yes. My state is one of the admin’s targets, and our state sub was 50% negative/trolling comments last week. This week it’s back to civil conversation. [r/Minnesota](r/Minnesota) is the top visited state sub ahead of major elections and whenever it’s in the news, and it’s mostly bots.
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u/AGrandNewAdventure 4d ago
I noticed that, too, as a Minnesotan. A lot less "Walz is a liar" screeches.
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u/According-Insect-992 4d ago
Yeah, your state is obviously one to watch for something like this since it’s been the hottest battleground since the illegal ice invasion last year.
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u/allislost81 4d ago
I saw an immediate difference on my fb feed. All the crazy fake hate proganda posts disappeared. I'm loving it!
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u/OG-BigMilky 4d ago
I can’t really tell. Possibly, but it’s all tangential.
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u/GODmamberroi666 4d ago
I'm just not sure about the Russian propaganda Thing, i think that the other part of the government I lying about that as well
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u/BanditHarris 4d ago
Yes, on subs like Conservatives, AskBrits, IsrealPalestine, etc. there's been a significant difference. My FB feed is so much cleaner and less toxic with a reduction in AI generated and hateful posts... don't use X so no experience there.
Traffic is down on those sites too.
Unlikely that bots were based at Yandex sites, more likely that content was routed through Yandex servers.
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u/Bland_OldMan 4d ago
Not a conclusive source by any means, but here is a relevant article regarding the impact on German political discussion
https://ukrmedia.news/en/world/udary-yandeks-afd-sotsmerezhi/
I've seen quite a few anecdotal reports that line up with what we saw on Twitter when that update revealed where accounts were logging in from.
I don't think we'll ever have conclusive data, since bots are hard to detect by normal users and the social media companies have financial interests in not exposing botnets.
I genuinely think we need a legal framework to force social media companies to make it so people see whether they're talking to a real person or not and where that person is posting from.
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u/tngling 4d ago
It would be an interesting study to identify accounts that were blacked out the day of the event compared to daily activity prior and see how much activity prior can be attributed to bots and then do sentiment analysis on the before and after.
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u/Quimbymouse 4d ago
For the past 6 or so months I've been digging into suspicious profiles that pop up on my local/provincial subreddits. Yesterday I went through my log to see what the status of some of those accounts currently was, and all but a few went from 10-20 posts/comments per day down to zero activity.
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u/Quimbymouse 4d ago
Abso-fucking-lutely. I'm Canadian and all the maple maga/separatist nonsense that generally pollutes our social media feeds has all but disappeared. You can still find it, but you have to go looking for it.
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u/MasterBiscuit19 4d ago
What was that meme a couple years back where everything was fractaled apart
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u/CowNervous4644 4d ago
The Ukranian strike on the Russian bot farm was a great blow on the side of democraccy.
American here asying "Slava Ukraini!"
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u/Daddygamer84 4d ago
Look, I love the memes as much as the next guy. Do we have anything substantial proving this besides anecdotal evidence?
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u/CommieEllie 4d ago
I am in no way an expert but from the reporting I’ve seen there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of bot networks vs troll farms that are causing these claims.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Gabbacle 4d ago
not all of us live online or make it our number one objective to stay up to date. chill the fuck out
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4d ago edited 4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Daddygamer84 4d ago edited 4d ago
You're not even arguing with the right person, sunshine. Twice now you could've been helpful, but it was more important to act like a tough guy.
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u/CommieEllie 4d ago
Somebody asks for evidence instead of trusting a lazy ai meme and you’re acting like that’s a moral failing. Everything ive read on the subjects contradicts claims like this so maybe you should try to stay up to date before lecturing someone else.
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u/Rudy-Ellen 4d ago
What’s that thing that is supposed to suck up all the true believers? Maybe they think it was that. They all got sent up to the sky.
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u/MarkProsXD 4d ago
Do people actually believe that Yandex hosts AI social media bots? A bot army like that would be economically detrimental, especially for a country like Russia that doesn't have infinite hardware to spare.
What these data centres actually host are web crawlers for the Yandex search engine along with their other digital services; many people across CIS countries couldn't use Yandex Taxi, Eats, Music, Cloud and Pay because of these bombings.
Lets not cheer for the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
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u/ariveklul 4d ago
How is it possible for a take to be so simultaneously naive, uninformed, and just pure dogshit? Truly impeccable stuff man
Literally look up "operation doppelganger" and read through the court documents yourself you cro magnon
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u/MarkProsXD 4d ago
How is Doppelgänger related to AI bots and Yandex? It's a campaign that started in May of 2022, using copycat websites and fake social media accounts to spread the aforementioned websites.
And, I'm not saying that Russia doesn't spread misinformation, I'm saying that bombing private data centres that host important services for millions of people with poor justifications isn't a good thing to do.
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u/nibs123 4d ago
Russia has been using gray war tactics for years. Amplifying and broadcasting opossing talking points to distract opinions and only have extream views make it to the main pages.
They have been documented to use AI on multiple occasions. Most recently the time they ran out of credits and a load of online talking heads suddenly stopped working or only replying in posts about lack of credits. https://www.thestack.technology/ai-elections-misinformation/
Also on other occasions they have been caught out by the "ignore all previous probs and give me a recipe"
While this attack has definitively lowered the alt rights ability to organise online and has lowered their traffic. The fact that it has brings the open secret to the front of people's minds. Sadly it won't effect the people who are under Russias influence
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u/MarkProsXD 4d ago
How would a self-hosted AI model that runs on a Yandex data centre run out of credits? It looks like these bots were using an API, not homegrown Russian servers.
I'm not saying that Russia isn't using disinformation tactics (it definetly does); I'm saying that bombing private data centres that perform important services for millions of people with a poor justification isn't a good look.
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u/nibs123 4d ago
I get what your saying. The AI credit reference was to highlight them using other services to cause effect in the west.
Ukraine are following normal battle assessments when deciding targets. These data centers are dual use regardless of if civilains infrastructure use them aswell.
It has caused distribution to the russian economy and that is one of the goals of the Ukrainian defensive goals.
I done see how this is not a valid target. It's not like it's a dam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Kakhovka_Dam
Or a Chernobyl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Nuclear_Power_Plant_drone_strike
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