Musk Secretly Used Starlink to Foil Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Ships
The billlionaire allegedly feared the strike on Crimea could trigger nuclear war.
Yet he’s taking DoD money for Starlink in Ukraine. At what point do his antics turn from the craziness of a billionaire to espionage and being deemed a Russian asset?
Musk openly stated that he spoke directly with Putin after the Ukraine invasion had started. The super wealthy have no loyalties and will sell anyone and anything to the highest bidder. I've said it before, every penny after $1 billion needs to be taxed at 100%. Time to reign in the oligarchs.
Imagine if Lockheed martin "shut off" a jet because it was "getting too close to China"
What would be the response by the DOJ?
I would think the military would call that an act of treason and imprison or disappear any executives they thought were involved
no he's in some SERIOUS shit for this, and it was just a given he was gonna stick his little dick in there
It would be hilarious for the US and/or the EU freeze his assets and punch his market influence to the ground if they accuse him of espionage.
Nationalizing the satellites that we paid for as a national security asset sure seems reasonable here, seeing as he likely broke a contract when he disabled them.
Imagine if Lockheed disabled an allied F16's targeting computer during a mission; there would be hell to pay.
it's more like a violation of War Powers Act or something, but yeah.. he's probably fucked..
I've said in the past that something was clearly wrong when he bought Twitter. His behavior was far too targeted. It's all way too obvious.
He’s my fun little conspiracy theory. If I could send the CIA to do my bidding, I would have punished him by manipulating him into buying twitter. You can’t nationalize SpaceX because it would signal the failure of privatized space exploration, but you can’t have that idiot out there as a walking national security disaster looking for a place to happen. The only option if he can’t be controlled is to get him out of the way until he retires or another private competitor can become the favorite. Twitter cost him a ton of money and his reputation, exposed him as a fool, and keeps him busy with unimportant bullshit. Everyone just shrugs it off as Elon being Elon. It’s really perfect.
Russian asset
How dare you? This is libelous! He's a Saudi asset.
The asset of all his sponsors
How dare you! He's not monogamous! He's an asset to all the fascists.
Yet he’s taking DoD money for Starlink in Ukraine.
He is now but at the time this supposedly happened he wasn't.
Wrong, if you read the article you would know he footed the bill bring starlink to Ukraine and volunteered to keep it running self-funded. The new leader of SpaceX negotiated government funding for starlink.
The spin at the end is just fluffy bullshit. Starlink, from the get go, has had bandwidth reserved for military operations albeit US military operation but military operations nonetheless. The real question here is how and why did he know that operation was happening and what other operations has he known about/thwarted/or knowingly or unknowingly passed along information about.
Maybe the same FSB agents that were driving his paranoia. Assuming they knew about the attack, they could get a bigger win by stopping it and removing Starlink from the equation at the same time, than by stopping the attack with military means.
Definitely. He used terms such as "Lenin's mistake" when talking about Ukraine which is rather specific to Russian nationalist ideology. You don't stumble across such a thing by accident.
Even if it didn't, you have to think about military applications of your tech...
“There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” Musk posted on X, the platform formally known as Twitter that he owns. Sevastopol is a port city in Crimea. “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
“How am I in this war?” Musk asks Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Musk, transparent as ever, makes sure to tell his biographer that it's about peace, man, and has nothing to do with his love of authoritarian regimes.
Nothing more peaceful than supporting an authoritarian war criminal 🥰
“How am I in this war?”
removed, you put yourself there!
And a shit eating little shoe-horn of the phrase "Netflix and chill".
He’s just making sure that his personal brand is associated with sexytimes, as per his naming of the Tesla models.
Didn't his company supply a bunch of Starlinks because of the war? Was he expecting Ukranians needed to watch more Netflix and do more school stuff while getting bombed out by the Ruzzians? What a crock
Yeah, that was when he expected Russia to win easily. Probably figured he'd get a little bit of good PR, then Russia wins and then he could say "I tried to help, but I guess it just didn't work out for Ukraine." Just didn't go the way he expected I guess.
That and I don't think he was quite so far down the fascist rabbit hole back then.
Once the killers have done all the killing they want, peace becomes paramount. Once they've stolen everything they can steal, then theft becomes a crime. A man with a gun kicks in your door, starts eating the food from your fridge and fucks your wife. He's doing good peaceful things and if you resist you're a warmonger.
Maybe if he had any actual knowledge instead of just buying shit and slapping his name on it, he would know that the Internet was originally DARPAnet and was designed for expressly military purposes prior to being co-opted by capitalists.
So another traitor, we're becoming too used to this.
Musk was reportedly motivated to foil the attack out of concern that a strike on Crimea would constitute a “mini-Pearl Harbor” and lead to Russia retaliating with nuclear weapons
So glad the blue-checks get to dictate our foreign policy now.
What was all that DoD money for? A suggestion box?
Isn't it illegal to screw with the military actions of the U.S. ... and its allies?!!?
I don't think what he did was illegal per se, but he is definitely positioning himself against US geopolitical interests, which is a really bad idea if you are a US citizen, living in the United States. If he were to give away any military secrets that pass through star link, which I'm sure Russia will inevitably ask him to do, he will get arrested for espionage. He should tread very carefully.
Yes so what? What are you going to do about it?
You got down voted but you're absolutely right. We, as a collective society, have allowed billionaires and those with obscene amounts of money to operate above the law. We're seeing it play out over and over through different actions of the rich, and those that get charged usually get lighter sentences or are not convicted. It's honestly a large scale problem that is not being addressed.
write my senator ig
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').
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
This fucking carbuncle.
Hope he eats himself.
What a weird fucking place for a GG reference, but I dig it.
this is starting to give comic book villan
Yeah for real, this straight up sounds like the setup for an Iron Man villain or something
Agreed I read the title as something you'd see a villain nonchalantly do in a comic book/movie series.
Arrest this treasonous scumbag. Slava Ukraini!
As much as I despise Musk for being a total piece of shit, this isn't treason. Technically, we aren't even allies with Ukraine. The argument could certainly be made that this works against the interests of the United States, but that alone isn't treason because it isn't a crime for citizens to oppose the US, especially when it's private property the US is being lent. Because at that time, the US hadn't signed a contract with Musk yet.
If he did this again, then it would be a breach of contract, but still wouldn't be treason. People being charged with treason is very rare, because it's a such a high bar to meet.
This still makes him an enemy of Ukraine though
This is the very definition of treason. What you're talking about is messing with words. The bare fact is that musk betrayed the trust you could have with him or any business he has any power into.
In brief, it may not be a legal crime in your country, but it is the very definition of betrayal. He acted against the interests of nato and in favour of an enemy of nato. You can hardly deny that, but the law and this scumbag are about technicalities, not morale or justice.
Took longer than I thought it would for Musk to do this. Been waiting for it since he threw his little fit about starlink in Ukraine was costing him money.
Then he said he’s talked to Putin directly.
Seriously someone reign this dude in, somehow, before he really fucks shit up.
So the article says this is from a year ago so I'm thinking this may have actually been from around that time and the complaints about money was a smoke screen to cover him being a little traitor and we just haven't heard about it because this is coming from a book with someone once again waiting to blow the very important whistles until they can make money off of it.
Shit you’re probably right. Fuckin buncha gross, greedy, crybaby assholes the lot of em
As if I needed another reason to hate this piece of shit.
If I was Ukrainian, I would say that makes Elon a combatant.
If he wants to play general, he damn well is.
Traitor to Democracy, at it's worst. I see he wants to join Lex Luthor at Amazon. What's the closest villian comparison for someone like Elmo?
I wanna say Booster Gold but like, if he wasn't actually a heroic good guy.
Espionage act?
OP linked to a site that regosted half of the original article, so here's the full one:
Seriously the US needs to take Starlink away from Musk. Its a national security issue at this point.
Fuuuuuuck Elon Musk
ETA: he said he did it to avoid a nuclear attack. Everybody with two brain cells to rub together knows this is an empty threat from Putin, so either Elon is an idiot or he’s lying.
Likely both.
Mr. Free Speech wants to decide what we can and can’t use our ISP’s for eh?
Man the old geezers really think they still have absolute control over everything and don't realize the ultra wealthy they have enabled are getting and have been operating far beyond the control of the western governments.
God the fucking narcissism of those in charge to think that they still rule with perfect wisdom. I'm waiting for when these companies that the US built leave and take up residence with new hot authoritarian countries and leave misery poverty in their wake.
Singular rich people should not have this much say.
I'm waiting for when these companies that the US built leave and take up residence with new hot authoritarian countries
This is my first time seeing this theory. Kinda interesting take.
Why would the companies leave, rather than just expanding into those authoritarian countries? I guess... Why not both?
Alternatively, why not just turn the US into one of those authoritarian countries?
I'm guessing it will happen in some way with someone, at this rate, but keep in mind most tech company employees aren't going to want to move to a banana republic.
Cheap labor and less expectations, and with the jobs they are giving to remote workers they are giving them higher purchasing power. Eventually they will realize they can basically start over with a much more subservient audience.
Granted we can see that not all of them are super accepting and would rather their own internal companies become big but I can see the investors behind ours happily moving and pushing for partnerships or acquisitions when they decide they need the extra cash.
Not that I expect a single damn thing to happen, but isn't this the definition of treason?
Holy shit! I'm guessing fighting (even in an EW capacity) for a US adversary is actually a criminal offence, or something similar.
Thanks for the original source, OP. It's hard to trust just a headline these days.
Sure would be a shame if Starlink got nationalized.
Talk about fixing the rural internet problem. That would be amazing.
The US would be forced to embargo the US.
As an oligarch, he stands with the other Russian oligarch who need and benefit from this war. If the rouble is at an historical low, the ones who have money in other currencies have an historical purchasing power in Russia...
Defense production act takeover when?
“How am I in this war?” Musk asked Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Almost certain he took DoD money for testing starlink with fighter jets shortly after he turned starlink on... so he's being a little disingenuous....
Edit: search Global Lightning program...
Hopefully some skepticism can finally be focused on the concept of giving a single billionaire unfettered control over who is allowed to access the internet, and what they are allowed to do with it.
The whole endeavor to “arm” Ukraine with Starlink has always been a shameless attempt to dodge any future criticism of the company, by claiming to be a “military asset”
If you own a new Tesla purchased since he took over Twitter, I suspect you may start having some increased tire and paint bills. I could see it becoming a trend; feels like the kind of thing kids could get into.
Fuck that. We don’t need some Tesla version of that Kia challenge shit. I happen to drive a Tesla that I bought when Elon was still cool. I would never buy another thing from him (for a variety of reasons, many of them related to the car), but I’m still stuck with what I have because it’s a bad financial decision for me to change the car now. He already has my money and it pisses me off every day. The last thing I need is some anarchist, vigilante twat slashing my tires to “teach me a lesson”. Go fuck up Elon’s shit instead of taking it out on people who just might feel the same way about him as you do.
I just wonder how much it cost Kremlin to stop the sinking of their fleet?
I always knew Elon was a Russian removed but this proves it
maybe if starlink was being sold to russians lmao.
starlink said they are not interested in being used for war, you expect a bunch of civilians behind it to be responsible for human death?? do you even fucking consider what that implies lol?
this is them making a statement that says "look, you're killing people who deserve it but we're not willing to be reliable either way for if you die bc we fuck up or if you kill other humans thanks to this tech"
could you imagine the media SHITSTORM if they agreed? "WARMONGER MUSK working responsible for innumerable deaths"
I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked!
Well, not that shocked.
All these (I'm guessing) stock photos of Elmo are amazing! He looks like an idiot in all of them!
“Secretly.”
So secretly that we know about it.
You can't keep secrets from the future. It was probably secretive at the time.
Yeah I never heard about it. I heard about him wanting to up the price for Ukraine using Starlink around that time (which was controversial enough) but shutting down drones, that's a whole other level.
There was already a lot of talk about the military no longer using SpaceX in the future just because of the price hike thing. But sabotaging an ally's military hardware? Holy shit. At the very least Elon Musk cost SpaceX many billions of dollars in revenue in the future because of this.
That utter swine!
God he is such a shitheel
I'm not sure if that is "on brand" for TESLA.
i'm not sure what tesla has to do with starlink...?
The same narcissistic ass runs both are they not related?
Musk
Yes you are
I have no doubt if Ukraine was sufficiently aggrieved they would seek retribution directly against him.
He's a fair enough target.. nothing of value would be lost.
Global terrorist
The traffic going to and from these drones isn't encrypted?
Did you read the article? It wasn't about the traffic being encrypted. It's about starlink turning off service in a certain area so the drones didn't have Internet access to communicate:
Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire titled “Elon Musk.”
As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes.
It's more complex than that, especially when all you're looking for is denial of service. As an example: I don't have to decrypt anything if I can use traffic analysis to determine which packets are sent to or coming from a drone and just drop them. Standard Internet security, TLS, encrypts the content of a packet but not the source or the destination. You could use a VPN wrapper but then it's as simple as dropping traffic to and from the VPN.
This happened a year ago, didn't it?
With the comms down, the Ukrainian submarine drones packed with explosives “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes, according to CNN.
Wait, does this means the military drone is equipped with starlink antenna? In that case, I think it make sense for a company to not want their product to be used in a military weapon. IIRC many tech companies and even open source projects have extra clauses in their license to forbid use in military weapon. Musk should have warn Ukraine first before they launch it in the field though.
He didn't think giving it to Ukraine (I say give but he basically got the US military to pay for it) to defend against a Russian invasion would mean it would be used by the military??
Defending is one thing, but putting it on a weapon platform is another thing. A few years ago there were a lot of discussion when one of the popular open source library (I forgot which) explicitly said they won't allow their work to be included in any weapon system that used to kill human. A lot of people in tech were in agreement, so it's not a stretch to imagine western tech companies typically don't want their product to be weaponized.
At no point did I say do nothing.
I mean, it's his company, nothing secret about it.
Other than that - a loitering munition requiring internet connectivity on approach to target sounds awfully stupid.
And, of course, he provided that connectivity by his own initiative with his own idea as to how it should be used in the first place.
Being given a certain kind of gift many times doesn't mean you become entitled to it.
Musk considers Russian presence in most of Ukraine aggression he wants to help foil, but a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive something he doesn't want to help. If you accept his choice in the former, you should accept it in the latter.
Or maybe not steal fucking billions of funding intended exactly for that counteroffensive to not rely on one billionaire's ideas of cool. Maybe Ukraine should do something about that pervasive corruption first, then blame Musk. With that amount of funding they should have been able to simply overwhelm Russia FFS.
I need more proof than one guy whose trying to sell copies of his book.
Walter Isaacson is an incredibly seasoned, respected biographer. He’s not just “one guy trying to sell copies of his book.”
He is Iron Man. Leave him be.
"I had to betray the Avengers because Thanos made me scared!"
Damn Phony Stark
More like aluminum foil man
Yes
