“Russian bot traffic has dropped dramatically in the past few days after Ukraine knocked out Yandex’s biggest data centers, with a third attack happening last night. Cloudflare reports that bot traffic from the Yandex network has dropped to just 0.4% of the maximum number of HTTP requests recorded in the past two weeks.”

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/russian-disinformation-bot-traffic-nearly-eliminated-overnight-after-ukraine-drone-strikes-cripple-multiple-of-russias-google-data-centers-ukraine-intensifies-bombing-of-yandex-data-centers-in-response-to-moscows-strikes-on-kyiv-data-centers

Russia seems to be behind a lot of the pot-stirring and trolling in support of the authoritarian right

13 minutes ago, swansont said:

“Russian bot traffic has dropped dramatically in the past few days after Ukraine knocked out Yandex’s biggest data centers, with a third attack happening last night. Cloudflare reports that bot traffic from the Yandex network has dropped to just 0.4% of the maximum number of HTTP requests recorded in the past two weeks.”

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/russian-disinformation-bot-traffic-nearly-eliminated-overnight-after-ukraine-drone-strikes-cripple-multiple-of-russias-google-data-centers-ukraine-intensifies-bombing-of-yandex-data-centers-in-response-to-moscows-strikes-on-kyiv-data-centers

Russia seems to be behind a lot of the pot-stirring and trolling in support of the authoritarian right

Seems AFD traffick in Germany may have nosedived too(no expert in this; I just came upon it elsewhere...)

Edited October 11Oct 11 by geordief

58 minutes ago, swansont said:

Russia seems to be behind a lot of the pot-stirring and trolling in support of the authoritarian right

I wonder if Trump will demand that Zelenskyy stop attacking Russian data centres.

23 minutes ago, KJW said:

I wonder if Trump will demand that Zelenskyy stop attacking Russian data centres.

Likely. Elon posted that “Zelenskyy has gone too far” on Xitter

23 minutes ago, swansont said:

Russia seems to be behind a lot of the pot-stirring and trolling in support of the authoritarian right

Absolutely. The UK PM mentioned something like that on Brexit https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6jdm3zggl0ko

10 minutes ago, swansont said:

Likely. Elon posted that “Zelenskyy has gone too far” on Xitter

They are needed to undermine democracy so that his dream of mecha hitler becomes reality.

2 hours ago, KJW said:

I wonder if Trump will demand that Zelenskyy stop attacking Russian data centres.

Now I get it.
It's no wonder D Trump is pis*ed off at Ukraine and Zelinisky.
He was counting on the Russians to undermine the mid-term elections.

Oh well; on to plan B.

49 minutes ago, MigL said:

Oh well; on to plan B

So it's ballot-rigging, brutality, and the odd bloodbath then.

If Trump stood on the WH balcony and shouted "I'm a Russian tool!" through a bullhorn, it wouldn't be any more overt than these recent signals from him and his cohort. And I just see in this morning's feed that his DHS has raided a Dem congresswoman's house (on spurious claims about her immigration status), three weeks before the midterms. ФУКИНГ АССХОЛ.

3 hours ago, TheVat said:

If Trump stood on the WH balcony and shouted "I'm a Russian tool!" through a bullhorn, it wouldn't be any more overt than these recent signals from him and his cohort. And I just see in this morning's feed that his DHS has raided a Dem congresswoman's house (on spurious claims about her immigration status), three weeks before the midterms. ФУКИНГ АССХОЛ.

He certainly is an

According to BBC News hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros. Hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units, forcing some to warm to 50C (120F) overnight, according to one supermarket chain affected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crq5nzxv9q4yo

The cyberattack targeted software provided by a Danish engineering firm called Danfoss that allows retailers to manage their cold units remotely. The company say the affected cold units were older models whose security software could not be updated to ward off a risk that was already known to them.

As a result of the attack, managers arriving at branches of several supermarket chains on Monday morning were hit by a wave of hot air from the freezers. In some places there were even small fires.

French broadcaster BFMTV published an image showing a freezer in an ice cream aisle displaying a temperature of 26.5C.

Now who would do such a thing I wonder ?

4 hours ago, TheVat said:

If Trump stood on the WH balcony and shouted "I'm a Russian tool!" through a bullhorn, it wouldn't be any more overt than these recent signals from him and his cohort. And I just see in this morning's feed that his DHS has raided a Dem congresswoman's house (on spurious claims about her immigration status), three weeks before the midterms. ФУКИНГ АССХОЛ.

And of course, folks would clap:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/11/politics/video/trump-in-tennessee-i-could-say-the-stupidest-thing-and-youd-clap

This article suggests the drop of bot activity may have been due to a sudden decrease in crawler bots emanating from now damaged Yandex servers and not a decrease in fake accounts .

https://cybernews.com/news/yandex-data-centers-bot-traffic-drop/

Edited October 13Oct 13 by geordief

7 hours ago, toucana said:

According to BBC News hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros. Hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units, forcing some to warm to 50C (120F) overnight, according to one supermarket chain affected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crq5nzxv9q4yo

The cyberattack targeted software provided by a Danish engineering firm called Danfoss that allows retailers to manage their cold units remotely. The company say the affected cold units were older models whose security software could not be updated to ward off a risk that was already known to them.

Now who would do such a thing I wonder ?

Perhaps the same people who burned down the covered food market in Paris yesterday. Now is a good time, given the school riots in France, to further destabilise French society. Attacking food supply in France is probably seen as a good option.

Fortunate the French are less dependent on frozen foods than some nations. (As someone who enjoys a little cooking, I'm notice how many items in freezer sections here seem like things one could make with about ten minutes of simple assembling of ingredients. Stuff where all you have to know is how to boil water. And the frozen things often seem to be multiple times more expensive per serving. C'est ridicule!)

As for bots, does seem like Yandex data center attacks would primarily decrease spiderbots and engines and not so much effect on very widely distributed socmed influencer trolls. Bear in mind that Russians have access to many other web browsers like Atom, as well as many of the global ones like MS, Safari, Chrome, Mozilla, Brave, Duck, etc.

Edited October 13Oct 13 by TheVat

10 hours ago, exchemist said:

Now is a good time, given the school riots in France, to further destabilise French society.

I am not sure how much of riots really destabilize France vs just being a very French way to express themselves.

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

As for bots, does seem like Yandex data center attacks would primarily decrease spiderbots and engines and not so much effect on very widely distributed socmed influencer trolls. Bear in mind that Russians have access to many other web browsers like Atom, as well as many of the global ones like MS, Safari, Chrome, Mozilla, Brave, Duck, etc.

It unfortunately seemed to have been a bit overblown. But we can dream, can't we?

28 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I am not sure how much of riots really destabilize France vs just being a very French way to express themselves.

What I had in mind was that it may help to make Macron’s government seem unable to control events and thereby improve the chances of Le Pen, Bardella and the RN. That would suit Putin.

37 minutes ago, exchemist said:

What I had in mind was that it may help to make Macron’s government seem unable to control events and thereby improve the chances of Le Pen, Bardella and the RN. That would suit Putin.

Fair, though from a German perspective French governments barely control anything. That being said, things have changed and losing control nowadays basically just means a straight run to fascism (including Germany).

15 hours ago, CharonY said:

Fair, though from a German perspective French governments barely control anything. That being said, things have changed and losing control nowadays basically just means a straight run to fascism (including Germany).

I'm a bit less pessimistic, though I agree the threat is real. There was a reflective piece by Gideon Rachman in the FT some days ago, in which he pointed out that EU membership has proved to be a great political stabilising force. It has - eventually - seen off Orban in Hungary, PiS in Poland and has softened Meloni's government in Italy into something resembling a normal centre-right one.

There are signs that Le Pen may be starting to go the Meloni route. At any rate the RN has given up on the idea of leaving the EU - which means she would be constrained to working with it. Germany's AfD does sound nastier I agree, but so far they are a long way from gaining the Chancellery. Across the Channel, Farage is fucking up, with sleaze over donations (incl. a criminal police investigation) and now facing competition for the swivel-eyed vote from a red-faced country squire-type drunk called Rupert Lowe, who aims to out-Farage Farage, splitting his target electorate. There is yet time for the skeletons to come tumbling out of the AfD closet in similar fashion.

These far right parties are chock-full of unsavoury characters whose murky pasts can come back to haunt them. The media have an important job to do to shine a spotlight on them and make the public aware of the personalities and history of the people they are being tempted to vote for. The other point is that so long as they do not actually leave the EU, these countries do have to carry on holding more or less free elections, or they lose funding, which is very important for many of them (though not in Germany's case). In Hungary and Poland's cases, elections have booted far right parties out, once they have had time to show themselves incompetent in office.

But yeah, it will be a bumpy and nervous ride for some years yet. A change in regime in Russia would help quite a bit! And for that, a return to principle and reliability on the part of the USA would be a big help too......

8 hours ago, exchemist said:

has softened Meloni's government in Italy into something resembling a normal centre-right one

But Italy has been part of the EU for a great many years.
I would think that the 'softening' of G Meloni's policies, are due to electoral wishes as she's coming up for re-election no later than Dec 2027.
She may also have seen 'the writing on the wall' after her infatuation, and subsequent quarrel, with D Trump.

As for V Orban in Hungary, he was simply a corrupt grifter in the D Trump style ( although on a much smaller scale this being Hungary ), whose people finally got tired of it; I wonder when, and if, the Americans will do the same.

Not very informed on the Polish situation.

Anecdotal reports of reduced, bot related, social media divisive/disinformation posts are coming in from all over.
Even related to the Alberta separation issue in Canada.

No formal investigations/studies into the matter as of yet.

Edited October 14Oct 14 by MigL

7 hours ago, exchemist said:

It has - eventually - seen off Orban in Hungary, PiS in Poland and has softened Meloni's government in Italy into something resembling a normal centre-right one.

I think that Meloni is a bit of an odd one, as it is not quite clear to me how much of her is posturing vs real ideology and real desire to remodel the country. She always had a very different inward, vs outward-facing side. I suspect that she is not an ideologue, but mostly interested in keeping her far-right and neo-fascists base satisfied, while also clearly seeing the benefits of the EU. However, with far-right rivals rising, she did toughen her language, including suspending Schengen agreement with Spain.

PiS and Fidesz remain the second strongest party, but in a more broader sense, what has really happened is that the Overton window has shifted over the last two decades that extremists now have become close to the centres of power. That in itself is concerning, regardless if they are in power or just very close to it.

The idea of pro-fascists and mostly fear-driven politics (all connected via immigration and dubious fear of the the perceived demise of Western civilization) enables politicians to do and claim ridiculous things, as long as they show somehow a strong stance to immigration.

This includes restrictions of freedom and related to that, kneecapping of scientific institutions. Science and investigative media used to be gatekeepers of something resembling reality. Investigative media has been crippled by private companies, especially social media. Meanwhile, science was always under some political influence due to the way funding works. However, traditionally both were seen as a public good and cutting funding or exerting control was generally seen negatively by the public. But that perception has also shifted (and I will point again to the outsized role of social media) and especially in the US we see an active effort to cripple independent research as a whole.

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

I think that Meloni is a bit of an odd one, as it is not quite clear to me how much of her is posturing vs real ideology and real desire to remodel the country. She always had a very different inward, vs outward-facing side. I suspect that she is not an ideologue, but mostly interested in keeping her far-right and neo-fascists base satisfied, while also clearly seeing the benefits of the EU. However, with far-right rivals rising, she did toughen her language, including suspending Schengen agreement with Spain.

PiS and Fidesz remain the second strongest party, but in a more broader sense, what has really happened is that the Overton window has shifted over the last two decades that extremists now have become close to the centres of power. That in itself is concerning, regardless if they are in power or just very close to it.

The idea of pro-fascists and mostly fear-driven politics (all connected via immigration and dubious fear of the the perceived demise of Western civilization) enables politicians to do and claim ridiculous things, as long as they show somehow a strong stance to immigration.

This includes restrictions of freedom and related to that, kneecapping of scientific institutions. Science and investigative media used to be gatekeepers of something resembling reality. Investigative media has been crippled by private companies, especially social media. Meanwhile, science was always under some political influence due to the way funding works. However, traditionally both were seen as a public good and cutting funding or exerting control was generally seen negatively by the public. But that perception has also shifted (and I will point again to the outsized role of social media) and especially in the US we see an active effort to cripple independent research as a whole.

I don't think she's that ideologically right-wing either. She's seems more pragmatic and reacts to the moment.

33 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

I don't think she's that ideologically right-wing either. She's seems more pragmatic and reacts to the moment.

I would probably say populist. Nationally, she does project post-fascist roots, including strong elements of Christian nationalism, she does engage in power grabs, anti-LGBTQ-rhetoric and restricting academic freedom and so on. The other side is that she has been pro-European, which, in theory should limit these excesses.

That being said, I think that she belongs to the group of likely more clever right-wing groups which are just stupidly ideology- driven (which are also strangely pro-Russian) but in the tradition of post-fascist movement, aim to move the center more towards their ideology. Not in a brash unsubtle way as, say in the US, but more by normalizing fringe rhetoric. That way, she can play both sides and eventually EU-norms might catch up some of their ideology.

3 hours ago, MigL said:

But Italy has been part of the EU for a great many years.
I would think that the 'softening' of G Meloni's policies, are due to electoral wishes as she's coming up for re-election no later than Dec 2027.
She may also have seen 'the writing on the wall' after her infatuation, and subsequent quarrel, with D Trump.

As for V Orban in Hungary, he was simply a corrupt grifter in the D Trump style ( although on a much smaller scale this being Hungary ), whose people finally got tired of it; I wonder when, and if, the Americans will do the same.

Not very informed on the Polish situation.

Anecdotal reports of reduced, bot related, social media divisive/disinformation posts are coming in from all over.
Even related to the Alberta separation issue in Canada.

No formal investigations/studies into the matter as of yet.

Regarding Orban, my understanding is the EU withheld funding from Hungary on account of its lack of political freedom and Magyar, who defeated him, campaigned largely on the promise of getting the EU funding back by restoring a proper democracy.

37 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Regarding Orban, my understanding is the EU withheld funding from Hungary on account of its lack of political freedom and Magyar, who defeated him, campaigned largely on the promise of getting the EU funding back by restoring a proper democracy.

It is interesting though that Magyar was member of the Fidesz party up to 2024. Apparently a pardon regarding a cover-up in child sexual abuse scandal was one of the triggers. It is also interesting that some of the main messages were similar to Fidesz, with a focus on patriotism, anti-corruption, common-sense politics and overall national renewal. These are quintessential populist talking points, and pretty much the same that led Fidesz to victory. There are signs for a willingness to return democratic institutions, but those were not the messages that brought him victory, especially in the rural regions.

Also important, re-establishing democracy is difficult and folks rather easily give up on it if things get tricky. In Brazil Bolsonaro's son is poised for victory, for example.

9 hours ago, CharonY said:

It is interesting though that Magyar was member of the Fidesz party up to 2024. Apparently a pardon regarding a cover-up in child sexual abuse scandal was one of the triggers. It is also interesting that some of the main messages were similar to Fidesz, with a focus on patriotism, anti-corruption, common-sense politics and overall national renewal. These are quintessential populist talking points, and pretty much the same that led Fidesz to victory. There are signs for a willingness to return democratic institutions, but those were not the messages that brought him victory, especially in the rural regions.

Also important, re-establishing democracy is difficult and folks rather easily give up on it if things get tricky. In Brazil Bolsonaro's son is poised for victory, for example.

Dynastic politics is another aspect of populism. India and the USA spring to mind.

But returning to the issue of fascism, it is hard to characterise Magyar as fascist I think.