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#ElonMusk Has the Off Switch
With both #X & #Starlink under his control, the world’s richest man wields unprecedented #power.
By Marina Koren
Since Starlink first beamed down to Brazil 2yrs ago, hundreds of communities in the Amazon that were previously off the grid found themselves connected to the rest of the world. Here was the purest promise of SpaceX’s #satellite #internet—to provide #connectivity in even the most remote places on Earth—fulfilled.
#Security #Tech
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/elon-musk-brazil-starlink-x/679711/
#ElonMusk, the CEO of #SpaceX, received a medal from the Brazilian govt. But now #Starlink’s Brazilian service is tangled in a mess of #political tensions, #CourtOrders, personal #insults, & #threats to revoke the company’s license to operate in the country. And this drama all started because of another #Musk business that links strangers around the globe: #X, née #Twitter.
For months, #X & #Brazil SupremeCourt Justice Alexandre #deMoraes have been publicly feuding over Moraes’s order that X suspend dozens of user accounts, incl’g many belonging to #RightWing politicians & pundits, as part of what the judge has called a campaign against online #disinformation. #ElonMusk has largely ignored the demands, accusing de Moraes of censoring *conservative* voices. He kept ignoring it even as the court levied fines against X & froze #Starlink’s Brazilian financial assets….
The fight reached a boil in recent days, when #deMoraes instructed #internet providers in #Brazil to cut off access to #X altogether & #Musk refused to block the site on #Starlink until the latter business got its accounts back.
In some ways, this is classic Musk, scuffling w/ govt agencies when he believes they’re infringing on HIS enterprises. “What a scumbag!” Musk posted about de Moraes yesterday, after Starlink reversed course & agreed to block X….
(& pursue #legal action over assets). But in other ways, the debacle is a microcosm of fraught, ongoing debates over #FreeSpeech & #internet #regulation around the world [& businesses abiding by the laws of the countries in which they operate]
…[#Musk’s] actions could be seen as a…corrective to govt overreach. But they seem less magnanimous when you consider that the alternative to govt overreach is…a World Wide Web governed by the whims of the world’s richest man.
This particular feud has crystallized an unsettling truth that is growing more apparent each day: #Musk is becoming an #internet god [oh he’s gonna love that 
]. #Space-based internet & #SocialMedia are a potent combination, & their #control by a single person is quite unprecedented—& alarming in the same manner as a federal govt restricting online speech via sweeping decree.
Not only can #ElonMusk now determine who gains traction on a small but #influential corner of the web; in certain corners of the #globe, he can also determine WHO has #access to the #internet at all, & #regulate WHAT people encounter when they use it.
For a service that took off only about 5 yrs ago, #Starlink has become impressively ubiquitous, available for use on all 7 continents.
#Musk dispatched terminals to places reeling from natural disasters, & then to the front lines of war. When #Russia invaded #Ukraine in early 2022, it hacked the #satellite provider that the Ukrainian military relied on for communications. Ukrainian ofcls appealed to #ElonMusk for help, & #SpaceX dispatched truckloads of #Starlink terminals to the besieged country, for free.
Soon, #Musk found himself w/ immense decision-making #power, as #Ukraine authorities pleaded w/him to activate #Starlink over a port city in #Crimea, apparently so that they could conduct a surprise drone attack on #Russia’s fleet anchored there. By the end of the war’s first year, when #SpaceX no longer wanted to foot the bill for Starlink ops, the #Pentagon jumped to take over the job before SpaceX could cut off access.
As one undersecretary told @NewYorker’s Ronan Farrow, “Even though #Musk is not technically a diplomat or statesman, I felt it was important to treat him as such, given the #influence he had on this issue.”
Last year, when #Israel’s PM Benjamin #Netanyahu hosted #ElonMusk for a visit, the billionaire looked—& [cos]played—the part of a world leader traveling to a war zone.
#Musk toured a kibbutz that #Hamas had attacked, dressed in a suit instead of his trademark occupy mars T-shirt, & offered #Starlink’s services to the Israeli govt. #Israel has imposed #internet blackouts & destroyed #telecommunications #infrastructure in #Gaza…. This summer, after lengthy negotiations, Israeli authorities allowed #SpaceX to activate #Starlink in one hospital in Gaza, w/more service on the way.
The deal resembled agreements between #Israel & other world powers for #HumanitarianAid, but as far as we know, the #UnitedStates, where #SpaceX is registered, did not send #Musk to the #MiddleEast to broker it. He flew over on his private jet.
#Starlink is what’s known in the #satellite business as a #megaconstellation.
At the time of this writing—& that’s important to note, because #SpaceX launches a fresh batch nearly every week—more than 6k operational #Starlink #satellites are circling Earth, accounting for >½ of all functioning satellites in orbit.
Starlink has grown so large in part because SpaceX is simply the most prolific #space company in the world.
Other companies are working on their own #internet constellations, incl’g #Amazon, but they’re lagging far behind—& none of their leaders owns prominent #SocialMedia companies, where they can [personally] govern the flow of #information.
Compared w/ #SpaceX, the world’s town square, as #Musk calls #X, is a cauldron of #chaos, especially for users.
Since #ElonMusk took over #Twitter, he has made it a cozy home for #FarRight provocateurs, reinstated the accounts of previously banned bad actors, promoted #ConspiracyTheories, & made the website worse at separating fact from fiction. And yet, #Musk believes that #X is the “number 1 source of news in the world.” [
] For a part of the world that relies on #Starlink, Musk could, if he wanted, make it the ONLY #news source.[
]
The #Brazil fiasco may have led to #ElonMusk backing down, but it has also revealed just how easily he can serve #Starlink users whatever #content HE may want. #Musk’s fame, the omnipresence of his many businesses, & his growing attention to #politics does not automatically translate to #ForeignPolicy expertise [ya think? He’s a #Putin fanboy FFS]. But what could Brazil—or any nation—really do to curb his control?
Pummel #Starlink out of the sky? Impossible; as David Burbach, #NationalSecurity affairs prof at the #US Naval War College,…[said], “Nobody has enough anti-satellite weapons to come anywhere near shooting that down.”
& Starlink, which currently operates in 75 countries, is only getting bigger. A new batch of #satellites went up today. #SpaceX has already received approval from #US regulators [
] to launch thousands more,
Soon #SpaceX may start launching Starlinks in even greater quantities on its giant new rocket, #Starship. #ElonMusk envisions as many as 42k #satellites orbiting Earth someday. In the next few yrs, more people than ever may find themselves subject to #Musk’s decisions when they’re doing something as simple as sending an email. The exoskeleton of #Starlink satellites surrounding Earth…will feel almost palpable, shifting w/the whims of the richest person in the world, who controls it all.
Well, this is ominous.
@Nonilex Whenever I see actual news sources, they cite X. So, well, yes...
@pino hopefully they aren’t citing X as the authority but rather politicians, pundits & journalists posts on the platform.
@Nonilex why do we need them?
Starlink has grown so large in part because SpaceX is simply the most prolific space company in the world.
@Nonilex Is it funded by the govt?
Many places have been markedly improved by having previously unavailable access to the internet. Alaska particularly, but most rural or far flung places seem in the dark ages of connectivity.
Musk is a singular cancer among the plague of billionaire cancers on our society, but giving people internet access is to be applauded.
Likewise the plague of satellites being launched is less than desirable - as it significantly increases orbital debris and risks of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome Kessler Syndrome/Cascade which would deny the earth access to space for a minimum of decades. Not to mention problems on earth as the atmospheric aluminum concentration of all the burnt up satellites is directly decreasing the ozone we have to protect us from radiation.
Edit: the aluminum bit is a problem because unlike previous satellites which were larger but few in number and lasted decades, these 1000s of Starlink sats are only up there for 5-6 years before burning up.
@pixelpusher220 @Nonilex Thank you for this information and the link. I have some reading to do.
@Sandywb @Nonilex And to inform about the scale Starlink *alone* constitutes 62% of all currently active satellites
https://www.the-independent.com/tech/elon-musk-satellites-starlink-spacex-b2606262.html
Resistance Starts NOW @Nonilex Terrifying. Why is Biden allowing this?
Gus Posey @Nonilex Congratulations on a terrifying, heartbreaking post. In the context of Eloig or whatever it's the kind of thing people need to hear more of.
