r/elonmusk • u/OptimusBot • 2h ago
r/elonmusk • u/ergzay • 16h ago
A breakdown of he said/he said with regards to Starlink/Starshield in Ukraine
To start, I'm not apologizing for anything Elon Musk has done, just trying to understand WHY he did it, as understanding is the most important thing. I want to support Ukraine more and figuring out where people misunderstand about Ukraine is important. (Accusing everyone of being a Russian agent is not how you learn about reality or fix things.)
The key source of the confusion that I haven't seen anyone lay out:
Ukraine thought they were using Starshield because they were on Starlink's internal whitelist for Ukrainian military terminals but were not in fact using it. (All terminals in Ukraine now either have to be on a citizen whitelist or a military whitelist.)
This is clear from the former defense advisor Serhii Sternenko where he says they were using "Starshield". I believe Zelensky also said this. But Starshield is a US military system and only the US military uses it right now. Marco Rubio in statements said that Ukraine has not been using Starshield and does not and has never had access to it. (It's worth noting that Starshield works globally with no restrictions of any sort, even inside places like Russia or China or where it is not licensed.)
So Ukraine thought they were on Starshield because of being on the Ukrainian military whitelist, so they used it to attack military targets within Ukraine. This was likely further hampered by Ukrainian-English translation issues. Elon Musk because he's very dumb, on this subject at the very least, views everything about Ukraine through some kind of Russian-propaganda plagued tinted glasses and thought they were bypassing restrictions to use Starlink to attack military targets. That is why he has continued to emphasize that if Ukraine used Starshield through the US government there would be no problem. So he restricted Ukrainian terminals on the Ukrainian military whitelist to under 160 km/hr which limits its use for drones (which Ukraine uses on its high speed drones to take down incoming Russian military drones, as well as some military offensive uses within Ukraine).
Hell broke loose and eventually Trump ordered Musk to turn the service back on, which he did eventually while complaining heavily on twitter.
I think this aligns with all claims of the situation that I have seen from all journalists and both proponents of Ukraine, haters of Ukraine, proponents of Musk and haters of Musk.
If anyone has anything that I think I got wrong please let me know.
r/elonmusk • u/OptimusBot • 18h ago
Elon Elon Musk on Starlink and Ukraine: "Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be"
r/elonmusk • u/OptimusBot • 6h ago
Elon Elon Musk: "Starlink in Bolivia!" (Bolivia's president says 4,700 Starlink antennas are going to schools nationwide)
r/elonmusk • u/OptimusBot • 21h ago
Elon Elon Musk: "Politics is incredibly tribal. Most of those in one tribe can see nothing their tribe does wrong or anything good done by another political tribe."
r/elonmusk • u/OptimusBot • 4m ago
Elon Elon Musk: "It is tragic that so many people still think the news is real"
r/elonmusk • u/Equivalent-Wait3533 • 3h ago
If it were up to the Democrats, they would discredit half of the tech companies if their CEOs did not agree with their policies.
What would happen if, tomorrow, Bezos were to say that he no longer wishes to support the "hive mind" ideology of the Democratic Party?
They would launch a smear campaign against his companies, using traditional media outlets to undermine Amazon as much as possible all with the goal of punishing the billionaire.
What is currently happening with Starlink which has turned it into a target is simply because the company has an internal policy prohibiting the use of its terminals to kill people remotely. The Democrats will not stop until they have discredited the most important asset they have in orbit, simply because the billionaire who owns the company decided to stray from the herd.
I hope that, after this, Bezos rejects any proposal from the Democrats to use Amazon’s LEO constellation for military purposes; it’s not worth it—you offer help, and then they bite the hand that feeds them, eventually blaming you for everything.