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Musk cut internet to Ukraine’s military as it was attacking Russian fleet (www.washingtonpost.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by spaghettiwestern to c/[email protected]

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If you're hitting a paywall, here's a CNN link to the same story: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html

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[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Website is paywalled, no archive link, and I can’t make any sense out of the TL;DR. Why did Starlink cut off the Ukraine’s internet access? I’m guessing it’s for a much less interesting reason than the headline wants us to assume

[–] spaghettiwestern 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably worse than you think the headline wants you to assume.

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.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html

Plenty of other sources.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you very much for the link, that’s really kind of you! I’m a bit lazy/tired so searching myself for it myself wasn’t within my power this evening :)

Musk’s decision […] was driven by an acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons

That’s not what I was guessing, honestly, it seems almost too well-intended for Musk. I was assuming it was because Zelenskyy hadn’t retweeted him or something.

[–] spaghettiwestern 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think it's too well-intentioned for Musk also.

I really don't believe that Putin would essentially end up destroying his own warships by dropping nukes to keep those same ships from being attacked by Ukraine. The whole point of leaving these activities to government is that they have much, much more information, real expertise and are able to actually make informed decisions. There is no way that Musk can make decisions that can even approach the level of those informed by the CIA, NSA, FBI, MI5, MI6, SIS and other 3 character agencies we don't even know about.

Even if Musk were on America's side instead of just his own, the idea of him successfully managing foreign policy is as ridiculous as me successfully challenging Serena Williams to a tennis match. Musk has no business talking to Putin about American foreign policy or shutting off the Internet to interfere with Ukraine's ability to defend itself, and IMO he should be arrested and tried for it. It should be and is against the law.

My $.02, anyway...