Russian Telegram channels are suddenly gaining thousands of suspicious new followers. Nobody knows who’s behind the apparent bot attack.
Several independent Russian news outlets, including Meduza, have seen a sharp rise in subscribers to their Telegram channels in what appears to be a bot attack.
Several Russian news outlets, including Meduza, have reported a sudden surge in subscribers to their Telegram channels, suggesting a bot attack. Meduza's channel gained 10,000 subscribers recently, and data shows this growth is not organic. The new subscribers are mostly inactive accounts with no profile pictures and computer-generated names.
TV Rain, Novaya Gazeta, Ostorozhno, Novosti, and Astra have also experienced similar subscriber spikes. Politician Boris Nadezhdin complained about artificially inflated subscriber counts. Independent outlets and propaganda channels like RT are reporting the same issue, with suspicious accounts lacking photos, stories, or signs of real users.
The cause remains unclear, but TV Rain suspects the increase could be used to demand channel blocking, potentially linked to the upcoming State Duma elections. Meduza's story emphasizes its commitment to transparency, noting the use of AI in the newsroom for translation purposes.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
