I’ve just read that Musk decided to switch off the Starlink low orbit internet satellites just when Ukraine was about to launch a major offensive. This turned off much of Ukraine’s internet access and prevented their weaponry and navigation from working. This stopped the attack.
Why? What has Musk got against Ukraine? His politics have always been extremely right wing and unpleasant (like the man himself) but this act to disable Ukraine at a key moment seems beyond logic or care.
According to a new biography where that information disseminated, Musk turned off Starlink because he feared Russian nuclear reprisal at the time.
Thanks for this additional info. Interesting. First, its all about book sales. Typical. Second, I’m not sure I can take Musk’s word for it - besides, who is he to decide such stuff?
Putin Trump Kim Jong Un Musk Netanyahu and probably more I don’t know.
There’s some scary megalomaniacs about at the moment.
Musk set up the Starlink service to Ukraine at the start of the Ukraine war. The US gov’t pays for most of the fees via the Dept. of defense.
So Musk at first appears generous and supportive of Ukraine. Then gets the US government to pay for it - thus Musk is now a defense contractor. Then he thinks he can decide when his systems services can be used and how they can be used. That is beyond belief.
Oh, no, wait, he is right now suing the state of California because of laws its introduced that oblige social media companies to monitor their usage (to stop hate crimes, misinformation, etc.). So on one hand he absolutely wants control of content of his systems. But on the other hand he absolutely refuses to control content. What an utter door knob.
I’m an anti-fan of Musk. You can find some of my threads with criticisms of him here.
*click a thread title to get back to the forum.
But like most things, I don’t think it’s all black and white. If Musk hadn’t given communications power to Ukraine at the start of the war, the war would have been over before it started. Musk may be a total villain, but even villains do some good, even if inadvertently. Musk went from hero to villain quite quickly in popular opinion. He was the visionary of Tesla. Now he’s the killer of Twitter and eccentric space explorer. I don’t know where that leaves him now.
He has far too much power in the world for someone not elected. Technology gives individuals or companies power over large swathes of the planet.
Not disagreeing with the first part but you have more faith in elected people than I do if you think that election brings more accountability. Elected or not, people with power can do a lot of damage.
They can usually be removed at the next election, but no option to remove someone with so much influence who is not elected. We seem to have no choice in decisions he makes and he even controls social media. I’m assuming that there is nothing to stop others launching their own comms satellites in the same area.
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