Musk Secretly Used Starlink to Foil Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Ships
The billlionaire allegedly feared the strike on Crimea could trigger nuclear war.
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Ignoring the obvious implications of these actions, doesn't this also fly in the face of net neutrality?
I mean, a guy who effectively serves as the ISP for millions of people, suddenly and arbitrarily deciding he doesn't like a specific type of internet traffic, then proceeds to block their access entirely. So much for Starlink "opening access" to the full Internet...
Net neutrality is about not favoring (or disfavoring) one type of traffic over another. Turning off the internet entirely doesn't fit that definition. If he had specifically blocked traffic from the Ukrainian drones, that would be a net neutrality violation. It's still bad for other reasons though.
That's fair, and the article doesn't explain exactly how Elon was able to "cut off connectivity" to the drones, but regardless I think his own stance on how Starlink should be used can be reasonably interpreted as him favoring one form of traffic ('Netflix and chill', 'online school', 'good peaceful things') over another ('war', 'drone strikes').
I don't know if this is the same, but it's been previously acknowledged that they shut off service at the contested borders.
So Russia says they own this region now, all starlink would be down there.
Not sure if that's still the case
Hm, I don't think I'd agree. He chose to block this specific traffic. Even if he did it by turning off the internet in the region.
As far as I know Ukraine doesn't have any net neutrality regulations. Since net neutrality is per country then I think it's sort of a moot point. I also think you'd have a hard time arguing that pulling the plug violates net neutrality. You're effectively treating all traffic the same in that there is no more traffic. I do think it would be interesting to see how that would play out though.
Aside from that Ukraine would have to go after Musk for it. Which seems like a really bad idea if you want to remain in favor with the increasingly unstable power broker that controls the infrastructure you need.
I'll clarify that while there's a whole legal/political aspect of "net neutrality," I mean more so the general principle of it, in that ISPs shouldn't be limiting or blocking traffic over any other. Obviously, Ukraine can't go against the one providing them with their Internet and almost certainly doesn't have anything enforcing ISP net neutrality, but still, if I were a Ukrainian on the front lines and knew that the erratic dude providing vital internet connectivity to my country can just throw a tantrum about how "Starlink shouldn't be used for wars and drone strikes" and then coincidentally my drones just stop working... I'd be pretty angry.
I for sure agree that it goes against the spirit of Net Neutrality. I also think it would be interesting to hear what a court would say. I don't think you're outright wrong or anything. I just think it's sitting on the knifes edge. The fact that Ukraine doesn't have net neutrality means we'll never really know (At least I hope something like this doesn't happen again in our lifetimes or ever!)
And yeah, I certainly think the Ukrainian people have every right to want to see keel hauled for this, but I also don't think they have the luxury of makinng enemies at the current juncture. Musk is a giant piece of shit for cutting Star Link during a critical operation. He's a giant piece of shit for a lot of other reasons too, but this one kind of takes a giant piece of the shit cake...
I just think Ukraine is in a very tough spot with him. Even more awkward given that he's a single crackpot that has shown to be ready and willing to throw a monkey wrench in their operations because he felt like it.
You think Elon gives a rats ass about net neutrality?
Net Neutrality is a dead concept and has been for years, there's no walking it back
