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   Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:27 JST Nonilex

   #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/

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:15 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.[😱]

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation #internet #access #information

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:16 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #ElonMusk #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation #internet #access #information

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:16 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #ElonMusk #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation #access #Starlink

     Elledeeay repeated this.
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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:17 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation #internet #access

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:18 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     #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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:19 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:19 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     • The New Yorker :press:

     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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation #Starlink #internet #access

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:20 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     #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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:21 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:22 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:23 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     (& 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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:24 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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….

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:25 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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….

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     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Friday, 06-Sep-2024 11:17:26 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     #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.

     #Security #Tech #law #power #regulation