How Much of the Anger We See Online Is Actually Real?

Well, it looks like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given us something to talk about, and for once, it's a story that I'm actually happy to see. Ukraine has struck several Yandex data centres inside Russia, and shortly afterwards, there were reports of a major drop in automated internet traffic. Zelenskyy says people have noticed less hate and division on social media, although whether these strikes have actually disrupted Russian political bots is still being debated. In today's video, I take a look at reports from DW News and Euronews about the Ukrainian drone strikes, Russia's online influence operations, and what all of this could mean for countries like Canada, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. What bothers me is how much political division we're seeing around the world, especially when it comes to elections, foreign interference and the manipulation of public opinion. As Canadians, we should be asking ourselves how much of the hostility we see online is genuine and how much might be encouraged by people outside our country. ----------------------------------- How To Support The Guard The Leaf Channel Buy Me A Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/guardtheleaf Guard The Leaf Substack https://guardtheleaf.substack.com/ Guard The Leaf Merch Store https://shop.guardtheleaf.com ----------------------------------- e-7531 (Foreign affairs) https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7531 Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2109602415397749044 Did Ukraine's Yandex data centers strikes disrupt Russia's bot army? | DW News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46oJM9uAXXU Did Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centres cause Russian bot activity to plummet? https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/12/did-ukrainian-strikes-on-yandex-data-centres-cause-russian-bot-activity-to-plummet GTL Community Photo Map https://google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1RY_LT1cX8-QSl8LpEoCHhj1MgPjexgk&usp=sharing Proton Email Referral Link https://pr.tn/ref/4Z7GCXPE Guard The Leaf Social Links: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/guardtheleaf.bsky.social Substack: https://guardtheleaf.substack.com/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/GuardTheLeaf/ Hey.Cafe: https://hey.cafe/r/guardtheleaf Discord: https://discord.gg/MuCCQnUQ7u 00:00 Intro 04:01 Ukraine made yondex go bye bye 09:40 More On The Impact Of Less Bots 14:40 GTL Community Photo