Are all Russian bots affiliated with the Russian state?

[Shishirgano9]

Political bots, on the other hand, are created for the sole purpose of amplifying the political content of a particular party, candidate, interest group, or point of view. DFRLab discovered several political botnets promoting PRI party candidates in the state of Puebla ahead of the Mexican elections.


No, many botnets with Russian/Cyrillic-sounding thailand mobile database nicknames or usernames are run by entrepreneurial Russians looking to make a living online . Many companies and individuals openly sell Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube followers, as well as links, retweets, and shares on the Russian internet. While their services are very cheap ( $3 per 1,000 followers ), a bot shepherd with 1,000 bots could earn over $33 per day by following 10 users daily. That means they could earn $900 per month, twice the average salary in Russia.



For example, DFRLab has observed commercial Russian botnets amplifying political content around the world. In advance of the Mexican elections, for example, we found a botnet amplifying the Partido Verde in Mexico . These bots, however, were not political and amplified a variety of accounts ranging from the mascot of Japanese tourism to the CEO of an insurance agency.