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The Yandex outage probably didn't blitz Russian bots

Strikes on Russian data centers reportedly sent online bot traffic plunging, but a widely shared chart citing Cloudflare data likely measures something other than troll accounts.

On air: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on Best of BBN
Published 4:37 AM ET, Tuesday, October 13, 2026

▶ As it aired · Tech

Watch it as it aired: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on this story, from Best of BBN at 4:37 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are The Verge's, the jokes are ours.

At a glance

First reported by The Verge: “The Yandex outage probably didn’t blitz Russian bots”.
Covered on BBN on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 4:37 AM ET on Best of BBN, by Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield.
Topics: Yandex, Russian.
BBN covered this story before: Ukraine strikes Yandex data centers; Qantas bedbug grounding (October 12).

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

The VergeThe Yandex outage probably didn’t blitz Russian bots

What BBN said about it

Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentUkrainian drone strikes have knocked Russian data centers offline this past week, and a chart citing Cloudflare data says bot traffic fell sharply afterward.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe Verge says that chart probably misleads, because the traffic that dropped is likely not the troll-farm kind of bot most people picture.
Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo the trolls are still posting? That's a lot of confidence for one chart.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentAutomated traffic covers everything from search crawlers to scrapers, and one outage can't tell you which kind went quiet.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentA chart that goes viral is not evidence.
Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentI already shared it twice.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentI'm adding it to the list.

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