Zelensky claims bots are down

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested on Monday there was less hate, division and fewer provocations online because of fewer bots following data centre strikes.

“less hate, less division and fewer provocations”

Ukraine strikes Yandex three times

Ukraine has struck three of Russian tech giant Yandex's five data centres since October eighth in response to Moscow's attacks on Ukrainian internet hubs.

Claims rest on misread data

Claims that the attacks reduced disinformation appear to come from misinterpretation of Cloudflare data showing bot activity using Yandex's network has declined.

Cloudflare clarifies what data shows

Cloudflare clarified its data includes all automated internet requests to websites, including bots crawling for information, not necessarily bot behaviour on social media platforms.

“not necessarily bot behaviour on social media platforms”

Researchers find no change

Researchers from dTeam, tracking Moscow-linked influence operations, told BBC Verify there has been no traffic change from known Russian accounts and bot clusters on any platform.

“any traffic change from known Russian accounts and bot clusters on any platform”

Pro-Kremlin bots still active

Bots linked to pro-Kremlin operations like Storm-1516 and Matryoshka were still active on social media on Tuesday, evidence shared with BBC Verify by dTeam shows.

Strikes disrupted services, not bots

While there is no evidence the strikes affected Russia's influence operations, they have disrupted internet services for many users globally relying on Yandex's cloud services.