Democratic lawmakers are probing SpaceX over Russia’s reported use of Starlink in Ukraine, saying that recent developments raise questions about SpaceX’s “compliance with US sanctions and export controls.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk last month denied what he called “false news reports [that] claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia,” saying that, “to the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.” But Musk’s statement didn’t satisfy US Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who sent a letter to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell yesterday.
“Starlink is an invaluable resource for Ukrainians in their fight against Russia’s brutal and illegitimate invasion. It is alarming that Russia may be obtaining and using your technology to coordinate attacks against Ukrainian troops in illegally occupied regions in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, potentially in violation of US sanctions and export controls,” Raskin and Garcia wrote.
Musk has also stated that “Starlink satellites will not close the link in Russia.” However, the concerns raised by Rankin and Garcia are about whether Russia used the broadband service in Ukraine. Their letter said that Ukraine last month “released intercepted audio communications between Russian soldiers that indicated Russian forces had illegally deployed and activated Starlink terminals in certain Russian-occupied areas in Eastern Ukraine.”
Is this a rational discussion about what may be actually happening here in reality, or is this a circlejerk where everybody just repeats what we already know, which is that Elon sucks as a person? Let’s not become Reddit.
People are just as reactionary and easy to manipulate on Lemmy as they are on Reddit. We’re not that special, despite what Lemmy seems to collectively believe.
As for who benefits, consider that stoking political division, such as class conflict and anticapitalist rhetoric, have long been staples of Russian disinformation campaigns. And it is an election season.
That is not to say this is necessarily the case here, but its not hard to draw a line to who could benefit.
edit: China and Iran are known to operate similarly.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01399-3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
What are you talking about? Are you lost in the thread responding to the wrong person? I made no edits to my comment.
I mean… it says 4h (4h) next to your comment, so clearly you edited it afterwards. Its certainly possible I replied to the wrong thread, but let’s not pretend there was no edit.
e:
4 hours is how long ago it was made. If it was edited, it would say “edited” on the header, at least it does on Kbin.
If you actually read what I said rather than what he responded and actually read the link he posted, you’ll see that I didn’t say he deactivated anything, I said he denied the service for an ally.
Elon explicitly denied to activate starlink in locations requested by Ukraine with a bullshit excuse that that would support war, while now making no qualms of Russia using the service for war.
JFC. This mess where Russian forces are using StarLink is exactly why they didn’t want to turn service on in those locations in the first place!
Practically speaking there’s no fucking way to tell the difference between two SL terminals; one being used by Russian’s and the other by Ukrainian’s, when both forces use the same language, are using them for the same things, the terminals are so close to each other, and many of the terminals are being paid for by 3rd parties!
The people that can’t see past the end of their nose were pissing their pants over it last summer so Starlink said “Fuck it, you want it? You got it!” and turned the service on in the areas requested by Ukraine.
Now that same group of diaper wearing mouth breathers are shitting themselves because the Russian’s are SURPRISE…using Starlink.
Do you want the damn system off? Because that’s the ONLY way to guarantee that the Russian’s can’t use it.
That wasn’t my point. I’m just getting sick of seeing “Elon sucks” everywhere with no substance. We fucking get it already. You’re preaching to the choir on the fediverse.
Elon sucks