Bots attacked Telegram channels that conducted surveys on Russians' use of the national messenger Max.
The Telegram channel "Digital Etiquette" suspected bot manipulation. In the first minutes of a poll about Max usage, the leading answer was "No, I haven't installed it." The answer "Yes, I do most of my messaging there" received about 1%. However, the situation has suddenly turned around: now the positive option already 59 %, and the non-use option has only 33%.
"There's no point in doing a survey about the Max messenger. Bots will swarm in and manipulate the desired answer. You won't get a relevant cross-section. I run a channel myself and have encountered this." — subscribers supported the administrators of "Digital Etiquette."
To test the bot invasion hypothesis, the Russian Research channel conducted a similar survey. The first hour and a half showed that 80 % Participants hadn't installed the messenger, and only a few used it regularly. However, the results were dramatically reversed—the bots increased the share of responses for "I use it regularly" and "as my primary app" to 75%.
"Max continues to write his textbook of cringe-worthy PR," — writes Russian Research.
Bot-fueled polls are a classic tool for creating the illusion of mass public support, a tool the Russian authorities love to abuse. So much so that this support becomes obvious. For example, bots responded to our survey about faith in Putin's promises. The number of responses for the "I believe" option increased from 1% to 57%, and in one second the number of votes could increase by 20 at once.
"We're ready to do anything for 15 rubles." — readers of “NeMoskva” commented at the time.
Such inept and obvious "invasions" only increase distrust of government statements. The Max case has only reinforced in users' minds the image of "sovereign IT" as uncompetitive products that the authorities are trying to impose not on quality, but on primitive manipulation and deception.
The Max messenger previously began blocking users who attempt to disable access to their camera, microphone, and geolocation. At least 700 users have already complained about the block.
