Since the beginning of 2022, the cyber specialists of the Security Service of Ukraine have neutralized 35 bot farms that play a significant role in the cyber war; in the past few days alone, several of these have been eliminated in the Kyiv region, Odessa region and Kyiv, which, among other things, discredited Ukrainian defenders, spread panic and dispersed Russian narratives. This was announced by the head of the Department of Cybersecurity of the SBU Ilya Vityuk on the air of the national telethon and initiated a toughening of responsibility for their creation.
Now the creation of a bot farm is classified as unauthorized interference in the operation of electronic computing networks (Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and is punishable by a fine or imprisonment from 2 to 6 years maximum.
The SBU notes that many bot farms work for the Russian special services, which means that such actions should already be qualified as complicity with the aggressor state or treason, which entails a significantly higher level of responsibility. The agency proposes to single out the creation and operation of bot and troll farms as a crime.
“Our specialists are developing appropriate initiatives and changes to the legislation. We believe that it is necessary to single out the issues of qualifying actions – in particular, the creation and operation of bot and troll farms – as a separate offense, given its public danger, especially in wartime”
Ilya Vityuk,
It is obvious that the initiative is in its infancy – there is no specifics regarding responsibility, type and measure of punishment yet.
Well
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In early August, the SBU reported on the liquidation of a million-strong bot farm, which was created by a political strategist-citizen of the Russian Federation who moved to Ukraine. According to the investigation, it was used not only by certain political forces in our state, but also by Russian special services.
The SBU liquidated a million-strong bot farm that “shattered the situation” in Ukraine on the order of one of the political forces
