The other day Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that he believed that there was Russian interference during the Brexit elections.
Burnham told The Rest is Politics podcast, that upon arriving in Downing Street, he had asked if there had been Russian interference in the vote, adding: “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.”
In his podcast interview, Burnham said there was “certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics”.
He added: “I think we’ve been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven’t informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas.”
Meanwhile this week, Ukraine has attacked a number of data centres in Russia and that seems to have led to a plummeting of bot activity on the internet. For those not that technical, a bot is a computer programme that pretends to be a real person on social media. There are reports that posting around certain political topics has declined dramatically on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, etc.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian technology giant Yandex’s data centres have been followed by a dramatic decline in automated online activity, raising questions about whether the attacks may also have disrupted Moscow’s influence operations abroad.
The sudden drop fuelled speculation in Europe and the United States about just how much of the political debate on social media might have been driven by Russian bots.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in on Monday, saying social media platforms had become noticeably less hostile.
“When we started responding to Russia’s operation against our data centres and when our strikes reached Yandex data centres, it suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social media platforms,” Zelenskyy said addressing the Warsaw Security Forum.
“A lot of people, a lot of people noticed it, and there was less hate, less division and fewer provocations because there were fewer bots.”
“And it’s pretty clear where those bots were coming from,” he added.
“If they disappeared when Yandex went offline, this proves again and again that Europe is not the source of the problems.”
“Europe is not the one making everything more difficult,” he said.
In Germany, claims of a sharp decline in online activity surrounding the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) circulated widely following the attacks, although no independently verified figures have emerged.
Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský questioned the apparent coincidence between the disruption and the reported decline in activity around the party.
“If confirmed, this is telling: Russian data centres get hit, and online activity around AfD suddenly plummets,” he wrote on X.
Similar claims emerged in Britain, where online activity associated with Reform UK was also reported to have declined following the attacks.
In the United States, social media users reported fewer apparently automated pro-conservative responses on X, the platform owned by Elon Musk.
While official platforms often claim that automated “bot” accounts make up less than 5% of their active user base, independent cybersecurity researchers and empirical studies consistently estimate that the real figure across major platforms ranges between 10% and 25%, with bot activity spiking significantly higher around hot-button political events.
On X official estimates historically cited around 5%, but third-party analyses (including studies published in Scientific Reports) consistently place the figure between 10% and 20%, with bot interactions climbing over 30% in political discussions or high-traffic referral links. Facebook officially estimates fake profiles at roughly 4–5% of monthly active users, though independent research suggests fake accounts make up 10–15% of active profiles, leading Meta to delete over 4 billion fake accounts annually to keep pace.
Instagram sees lower raw account automation, estimated around 5–10% of total accounts, but heavily suffers from automated comment and engagement bots designed to pad follower counts. TikTok regularly sweeps hundreds of millions of fake or automated accounts per year, with ad-traffic estimates indicating around 2–3% automated traffic on general links, though automated comment networks remain widespread. Crucially, while bots may only compromise a minority of total registered profiles, cybersecurity firms note they account for an outsized portion of total platform traffic and comments, creating a vastly amplified illusion of public consensus.
If there is a decline in bot activity, this may affect the American elections in the next few weeks as most of the Russian bots are pumping out pro-Trump and pro-Republican sentiment. Could this be the reason why Trump seems particularly angry with Zelenskyy this week?
This is a good overview of Bot activity in relation to Ireland.
Russian influence is reaching Ireland, particularly in stoking anti-immigrant sentiment. While Moscow did not create every local grievance, it is actively fanning the flames.
Social media has become an engine for cynicism. It breeds pessimism, degrades mental health, and robs people of their agency. If you wanted to break a country’s spirit, you couldn’t design a better tool.
I’ve said before that the real vulnerability is internal. A Russian soldier will likely never set foot in the UK or Ireland, The true vulnerability is already here – Big Tech companies that profit off addiction and division. Western governments pour money into defence budgets to fight proxy wars, while simultaneously offering tax breaks to tech giants and filling executive boards through a revolving door of former politicians.
Moscow doesn’t need soldiers or missiles to weaken the West. It can destabilise a country from behind a keyboard in St. Petersburg, using our own digital infrastructure against us.
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
