The Russian Bot Apocalypse
Patrick Boyle 36:17
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In October 2026, Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out three of Yandex’s six major data centers, and a viral chart claimed that Russian bots had vanished from social media overnight. They hadn’t. In this video, we look at what the strikes actually hit: Yandex’s search crawlers, Russia’s taxi and payment apps, and the apartment gates of Moscow. We also look at why Russia’s data localization law left so much of its internet within drone range. Then we follow the real infrastructure of online influence operations, from residential proxy botnets and SIM farms to the off-brand 55-dollar Android TV boxes that rent out their owners’ internet connections. Along the way, we cover state-backed disinformation campaigns from Russia, China, Iran, and the West; the Sri Lankan academies teaching rage bait for Facebook ad revenue; the “supersharers” behind most fake news on Twitter; and new research from Anthropic on self-replicating AI that could run on the same cheap devices.
@christophe video - How to rage bait Americans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCvPPaIN5Ew
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Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinance
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Business Inquiries ➡️ sponsors@onfinance.org
Patrick Boyle On Finance Podcast:
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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/patrick-boyle-on-finance/id1547740313
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In October 2026, Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out three of Yandex’s six major data centers, and a viral chart claimed that Russian bots had vanished from social media overnight. They hadn’t. In this video, we look at what the strikes actually hit: Yandex’s search crawlers, Russia’s taxi and payment apps, and the apartment gates of Moscow. We also look at why Russia’s data localization law left so much of its internet within drone range. Then we follow the real infrastructure of online influence operations, from residential proxy botnets and SIM farms to the off-brand 55-dollar Android TV boxes that rent out their owners’ internet connections. Along the way, we cover state-backed disinformation campaigns from Russia, China, Iran, and the West; the Sri Lankan academies teaching rage bait for Facebook ad revenue; the “supersharers” behind most fake news on Twitter; and new research from Anthropic on self-replicating AI that could run on the same cheap devices.
@christophe video - How to rage bait Americans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCvPPaIN5Ew
Patrick's Books:
Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0
Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPF
Corporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC
Ways To Support The Channel
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinance
Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/patrickboyle
Visit our website: https://www.onfinance.org
Follow Patrick on Twitter Here: https://bsky.app/profile/pboyle.bsky.social
Business Inquiries ➡️ sponsors@onfinance.org
Patrick Boyle On Finance Podcast:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7uhrWlDvxzy9hLoW0EYf0b
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/patrick-boyle-on-finance/id1547740313
Google Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/62862nve
Join this channel to support making this content:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCASM0cgfkJxQ1ICmRilfHLw/join
Category (YouTube): Education
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