02/14/2023 / By Ethan Huff
The high-speed broadband internet access available through SpaceX’s Starlink satellite fleet is no longer available to the Ukrainian military.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell announced that the company is attempting to restrict Starlink internet access for military use, meaning only non-military civilians in Ukraine will be allowed to use it from now on.
Shotwell explained that Starlink was never designed to be used for offensive or defensive military purposes – though we wonder if this same rule applies to the United States military.
“There are things that we can do and have done,” Shotwell told reporters while declining to discuss any further details. “You offer a commercial product to provide connectivity to people, which is helpful in conflict, but you also want to be careful of how they use it.”
It turns out that Starlink internet access has been a key asset for the Ukrainian military, which was relying on it for communications purposes. Starlink was also used to facilitate “humanitarian relief” throughout the country.
Shotwell’s latest statement mirrors that of Elon Musk, who back in September tweeted that Starlink was designed specifically for peaceful use only – no war communications allowed. (Related: Musk is not the guy that many have been fooled into believing he is.)
“Starlink is not designed or intended for use with or in offensive or defensive weaponry or other comparable end-uses,” reads the Starlink terms of service document.
News about the change greatly upset Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has since demanded that SpaceX choose a side in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Zelensky clearly wants SpaceX to pick Team Ukraine, which would mean reopening Starlink access to the Ukrainian military. It is not enough for American taxpayers to simply fund the Zelensky regime to the tune of endless billions of dollars; the guy also wants Starlink internet access to beat Vladimir Putin.
Shotwell said that SpaceX first became aware of the Ukrainian military’s illicit use of Starlink when the technology was identified on Ukrainian drones. Apparently the world’s most corrupt nation failed to read the terms of service for Starlink before deciding to equip drones with it.
The news comes after Putin announced back in October that the Russian military is ready and able to target U.S. commercial satellites in the event that they are found to be aiding Ukraine in its resistance against his “special operation.”
Last May, Musk also stated on Twitter that Starlink had resisted what he described as a Russian cyberwar and multiple hacking attempts against the company’s equipment and technology.
“Elon Musk represents one of the perfect examples of crony-end game capitalism disguised to the taxpaying citizens as necessary to create jobs and advance solutions to environmental enhancement,” wrote a commenter at Natural News about how Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX empires were built on the backs of American taxpayers, not ingenuity or brilliance.
“In this case, the game is played in the name of alternative transportation (Tesla), planetary colonization (SpaceX) and the environment. NOWHERE is there a stipulation that the subsidies, tax exemptions, loans and grants be conditioned on 100 percent worker-owned companies, not as a collective but in individual worker titles, or that the financing is structured so that the workers will end up owning a significant share of the new capital assets and the benefits of the future wealth-creation and income generated.”
Others noted that it is probably a good idea for SpaceX to withhold internet access from the Ukrainian military so as to not support the globalist agenda.
More related news can be found at WWIII.news.
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Tagged Under:
computing, Elon Musk, Glitch, Gwynne Shotwell, information tech, military, military tech, national security, satellite, SpaceX, starlink, technocrats, Ukraine, weapons tech
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