Evidence Does Not Show Decreased Russian Propaganda After Ukrainian Strikes on Yandex Data Centres ⇥ lawfaremedia.org

Renée DiResta, writing for Lawfare:

There is a real event underpinning the story, and an authentic chart showing a dramatic decline in automated internet traffic. But the leap from a viral chart to the disappearance of Russian propaganda bots is a large one. Much of the apparent corroboration comes from anecdotes about how social media feels, rather than measurements of what actually changed. And this speaks to a broader problem: as platforms have reduced access to data, and as “disinformation” has become a politically contentious term, the ability to investigate claims about online manipulation has decreased.

My concern remains that offloading responsibility for the toxicity of online spaces to foreign propaganda campaigns makes it more difficult to confront the actual problems. There is plenty of blame to go around. Russia has, as DiResta put it in a 2018 New York Times opinion column, developed an “enthusiasm for and commitment to modern information warfare”. Other countries are also using social media for propaganda and misinformation, too.

But some blame should also be apportioned to the platforms that incentivize bad actors, and those that accept no responsibility for what they promote. Of course, there are also the individual users who are hostile and abusive toward others. This is made possible in part by platforms that moderate poorly and tacitly — and, in some cases, explicitly — encourage an outrageous environment. But it is also the fault of individual users who spread lies, hate, and harm. Many of them are not foreign actors, but our neighbours right here at home.