this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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Elon Musk-controlled satellite internet provider Starlink has told Brazil's telecom regulator Anatel it will not comply with a court order to block social media platform X in the country until its local accounts are unfrozen.

Anatel confirmed the information to Reuters on Monday after its head Carlos Baigorri told Globo TV it had received a note from Starlink, which has more than 200,000 customers in Brazil, and passed it onto Brazil's top court.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes last week ordered all telecom providers in the country to shut down X, which is also owned by billionaire Musk, for lacking a legal representative in Brazil.

The move also led to the freezing of Starlink's bank accounts in Brazil. Starlink is a unit of Musk-led rocket company SpaceX. The billionaire responded to the account block by calling Moraes a "dictator."

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[–] [email protected] 191 points 2 months ago (51 children)

Why does the weird one think that he should have more power than a government?

[–] [email protected] 70 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Daddy didn't say no enough?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago

His life experiences? Having that much money and power really fucks with someone's perceptions of the world.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago

Why does the weird one think that he should have more power than a government?

Because he quite literally does in a lot of cases. When is he ever punished?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I'm scared of the day Amazon realises they actually do have more power than the government.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (7 children)

They absolutely do not. It is genuinely shocking how many people in this thread fail utterly at comprehending the scale of the power wielded by the government.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

They key is to weld that power but not get caught doing it, then along came Elon...

[–] AwesomeLowlander 9 points 2 months ago

Amazon may have more power than some tiny countries, but not the US govt as your comment would imply

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

Because obviously the benevolent billionaire will do so much more good to the world than an evil government specifically elected by the will of the people. (/s)

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[–] [email protected] 160 points 2 months ago (26 children)

He really thinks he is above the law.

Why can't musk get stranded in space like these astronauts at ISS. We would all be better off.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

I mean to be fair, Starlink is a satellite network.

Edit: this is a shitty Dad joke for those that are taking my comment seriously.

Most of you don't deserve your humor license if you have one

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 months ago (8 children)

To be more fair, Brazil is a sovereign country, Starlink is not.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 2 months ago (6 children)

And starlink also gets banned from the country

Tesla next?

[–] [email protected] 63 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

the problem is starlink is actually a good thing, providing decent internet access to places that can't get it otherwise. I think the thing to target is the clear collusion going on between companies in ostensibly unrelated industries to pressure a government into reversing a penalty on one of them.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think the thing to target is the clear collusion going on between companies in ostensibly unrelated industries to pressure a government into reversing a penalty on one of them.

Specifically because they are controlled by the same asshat. This is the same exact type of shit he does with stock manipulation and why he was eventually forced to buy Twitter. All his wealth has been generated by cheating and exploitation. I hope Brazil drops the hammer.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Putting up tens of thousands of extra objects into orbit that we now have to track and worry about collisions with other satellites is not a good thing.

[–] Enkers 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Not to mention that their orbits degrades over time so they have to be continually replenished. ~~That comes at a huge cost which is highly subsidized by US tax payers.~~

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

That comes at a huge cost which is highly subsidized by US tax payers.

Hang on. Which subsidy are you saying Starlink is getting that is highly subsidized by US taxpayers? Starlink got rejected for the $900m broadband subsidy.

Note for clarity: Musk is an asshat.

[–] Enkers 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That was indeed what I was thinking of. I didn't realize it was rejected. My bad, and thanks for the letting me know!

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Also, each satelite that burns up upon re-entry isn't just gone - it still introduces vaporized materials into the upper atmosphere.

Iirc they are harming the ozone layer.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Starlink is a ridiculous centralized solution to what should be solved by upgrading fiber networks.

It's a bandaid with limited usefulness after maybe a decade. Basically an exercise in generating space junk.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In a lot of cases I would agree with you, but laying fiber optic cable through the Amazon in order to connect remote settlements is not feasible, starlink really does have a good use case there.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (7 children)

And ocean communication.

It's amazingly clear none of these people have ever tried to use any of the existing Geostationary satellite data networks.

They are slow as shit. Not just by modern standards, by any standards. HughesNet is one of the remaining satellite Internet providers.

$50/mo gives you 50Mbps speeds, 100GB of "Priority Data", whatever the fuck that is (probably your 50Mbps data, then it slows). And that price is only for a year, then it is $75/mo. They also love to tout a 30ms latency somehow, but that's just a damned lie. Latency for a Geostationary satellite is around 500ms, or roughly the speed of light because that's physics. So I have no idea where they think they're getting 30ms, unless that's only the additional latency they're claiming AFTER it bounces off the satellite and reaches the ground to be routed to the internet on their end.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

clear collusion

It's less so "collusion" than it is "a billionaire brat using their obscene wealth and plethora of businesses to strong arm their way out of any accountability". We can't consider starlink a "good thing" because it will always be part of that, and any group or government relying on it to any degree should take note.

[–] Kecessa 17 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Nah, Starlink itself is bad, the intention is good.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Can it be a good thing while it's controlled by someone so clearly looking to exploit it's influence for personal gain?

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The comments here are weird TBH. No, Brazil will not start shooting down satellites. It can just simply outlaw and sanction Starlink, stop anyone from paying Starlink for their internet subscription, and have peeps go around and confiscate ground stations.

Also, they can just go and ask the US to help enforce their ruling, telling them "do you want to be friends with us or Musky boi?"

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's a really good point. Starlink can ignore this order, but the courts can order banks to stop processing payments to them. Pretty sure Starlink isn't going to "protest" this at the cost of profits.

Of rourse Starlink could then go be further shady by taking payments in Bitcoin to get around it. It's an interesting arms race to follow.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (11 children)

Brazil is well within its rights to sanction Starlink and prosecute people for evading said sanctions, and have people pay fines and go to prison for buying Starlink with Bitcoin.

Just like the US does with Iran and Cuba.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Unfortunately, the US is now fully reliant on SpaceX for access to space now that they decided to rely on corporate spacecraft rather than building our own and Boeing has proven themselves unreliable since that change was made, and now that they finally have a craft they ended up stranding astronauts on the space station until SpaceX can rescue them due to defects. Plus we can't use Russia like we did after the shuttle program ended but corporate space travel wasn't there yet. And SpaceX isn't publicly traded to where it might be possible that enough investors could pressure Musk to cave.

So I doubt anything will come of it. Brazil will rattle their sabers. Musk will stand his ground, and the US will stay on Musk's side while pretending as much as possible to be staying out of it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Haha, that sort of dependency can be just as dangerous for a company as it is for the state. You start fucking around like that and antitrust and defense production act start knocking.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I wonder what would happen if a Brazilian company failed to comply with a US court order.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago

There would already be boots on the ground.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

When Republicans decide to have 4th of July at this judge's house then I'll believe he's a dictator.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

Lol, then I guess they can provide that access for free, indefinitely, all for just making sure they keep 200K (max) people in Brazil on Xitter.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I predict that nations will simply start blowing up satellites in space, creating a shroud of debris which will make space exploration nearly impossible.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

All these LEO satellites are so low it would only cause trouble for less than 5 years. That's part of why they are low.

If we ever had something as dense as starlink 500km higher though that'd be a different story.

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