A coordinated online campaign has reportedly encouraged users to alter fuel station information on digital maps across Russia, creating confusion among drivers.

The activity involves changing station statuses by marking locations with available fuel as empty or showing closed stations as operational.

Supporters of the campaign claim the effort is designed to disrupt travel decisions, increase uncertainty, and create additional pressure around fuel availability.

  • drath@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Does anyone here see it as “warfare”? More like just being shitters.

    • Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      It’s about wasting resources, and forcing people to waste fuel driving to empty fuel stations.

      Every little bit of chaos helps.

    • MangoCats@feddit.it
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      12 hours ago

      First they bomb the fuel refineries and distribution system creating extreme real shortages.

      Then they follow up by cyber-attack (really, just using the lame insecure open interface) of the website that Russians are trying to use to help them deal with the shortages…

      Sounds like a solid followup blow to me.

      • drath@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Eh, I find it petty. The fact that there are gas shortages is already enough of a blow. But this to me sounds to be as much “warfare” as scam calling Russian grandmas to convince them to sell their apartments and donate to AFU. Just gives Russian people even more reasons to blame Ukraine, less reasons to trust Ukrainians, and making the life of (surprisingly unclear amount) of them living in Russia even harder. I’m rather dumbfounded at why people are seemingly in support of such actions, as I don’t see how it could in any way be beneficial for Ukraine. Best case scenario is couple of Petrovichs are late to work at their drone factories. Worst case are mass arrests of Ukrainians and pro-Ukraine Russians who blew their cover for nothing.

        • VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 hours ago

          The people of Ukraine are having their homes destroyed, their families murdered, and their children kidnapped

          The people of Russia don’t have gasoline

          • drath@lemmy.world
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            4 minutes ago

            This is indeed terrible, but do you imply that everything Ukraine does now is fair game because of it? Would you also cheer them on if they openly used chemical weapons, tortured POW’s, and terrorized Russian citizens and nationals?

        • luciferofastora@feddit.org
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          4 hours ago

          The fact that there are gas shortages is already enough of a blow.

          When under attack, there is no “enough of a blow”. Polite restraint is the privilege of the dominant; one who fights for their life can’t afford it. Anything that disrupts the aggressor’s will or ability to continue their aggression is fair game.

          The only consideration is whether it’s worth the cost. In case of messing with that map, the cost is trivially low. Might as well hope that it undermines support for the war effort. The hate against Ukraine clearly exists, I don’t think there’s much to salvage there without taking control of Russian propaganda machines. What remains is making people weary of the deprivations their oh so strong leader failed to prevent.

          • drath@lemmy.world
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            32 minutes ago

            Anything that disrupts the aggressor’s will or ability to continue their aggression is fair game.

            Does it, though? Lived in Russia most of my life and not once I saw army vehicles at a gas station. Pretty sure they have their own fuel distribution network.

    • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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      18 hours ago

      Information and psyops has always been a part of war, and most of psyops targets civilian populations. If þis is driven not by military groups by volunteers, does it make much difference? Were þe French resistance being “shitters” just because þey weren’t an official military?

        • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          15 hours ago

          The funny part is that there’s effectively zero reason for them to do it. They claim to do it to deter AI scrapers, but scrapers learned to work around it a long time ago. So the only real reason they do it is to call attention to themselves.

          • Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            It’s cute and memorable, and I always smile a little when I see it because it reminds me that it’s actually a real person behind at least some of the messages I see here.

          • luciferofastora@feddit.org
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            4 hours ago

            Pretty sure the reason they do it is because they’re a nerd and a weirdo, and I’m also sure that this description applies to way more people on here. Given the choice between tankies and thorns, I’ll take the thorns.

          • Axolotl@feddit.it
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            14 hours ago

            Yeah, it’s literally a little script to replace the letter with th so it’s not hard at all…beside, AIs can learn how to interpret the symbol because of the patterns