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Russian social media crypto groups hit by bots discrediting Bitcoin – Bitcoin News
Social media groups devoted to cryptocurrencies in Russia have been attacked by bots in what appears to be a campaign against bitcoin and the like. Their comments on Russia’s largest social media platform are triggered by certain keywords such as crypto and blockchain, community members have noticed.
Bots flood Vkontakte groups with anti-cryptocurrency comments
Over the past week or so, crypto-themed groups on Russia’s state-controlled social network Vkontakte (VK) have seen an increasing number of comments attempting to discredit cryptocurrencies and related technologies, crypto news outlets Bits.media and RBC Crypto reported.
The comments appear below posts and linked articles about cryptoassets. They are all the same, for example: “It’s more expensive to delve into crypto, it’s always high risk,” “Anyone still talking about bitcoins?” or “People who are buzzing about crypto don’t even understand it.”
According to Nikita Zuborev, senior analyst at stock exchange aggregator Bestchange.ru, these bots first appeared on the platform’s community and official page on Vkontakte on February 13. The accounts are typical of such attacks and are only recently registered or stolen dormant accounts.
Bots are often used to spread spam and advertisements or attract users to fraudulent schemes, but this is not the case this time. The messages lack external links and the content is limited to abstract criticism of cryptocurrencies and activities such as trading.
Vkontakte’s press service told RBC that the company “does not register an increase in the number of bots on the platform” and assured that the moderators “react immediately to complaints” about bots posting the same information en masse.
Zuborev also commented that it is still difficult to determine exactly what the robots are responding to. According to his observations, they ignore posts containing images, but are activated by those containing words such as “Binance”, “bitcoin” or “blockchain”. The attacks have intensified this week, the analyst noted.
Crypto channels on Telegram are not affected by bot attacks
It is difficult to understand the significance and effectiveness of such a campaign against cryptocurrencies, noted the CEO of the defi-banking platform Indefibank, Sergey Mendeleev, as most of the Russian-speaking crypto-community does not use this social platform, “for obvious reasons.”
Mendeleev believes that someone ordered the attacks so that they can later refer to “the large volume of negative comments on the most popular social network”. The expert pointed out that no such attacks have been seen in crypto channels on Telegram.
Vkontakte was founded in 2006 by the Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov who later launched the Telegram messenger. In April 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO of VK. He suggested the move was due to his refusal to hand over personal user details to Russian law enforcement agencies, including members of a group dedicated to the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, and left Russia.
In September of the same year, the Mail.ru group became the sole owner of the company. In December 2021, Russian state-owned bank Gazprombank and insurance company Sogaz bought out 57.3% of VK shares, becoming holders of the controlling stake. Vkontakte recently launched an NFT service.
Who do you think is behind the attacks on cryptogroups on Vkontakte? Share your thoughts on the topic in the comments section below.
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