Elon Musk Overtly Blamed For Starlink Failure And Accused Of Wartime Profiteering In Favor Of Russia
As reported on prior, Elon Musk was previously believed to be shutting down access to Starlink, an important Satellite communications network which has been vital for Ukraine in the ongoing Ukraine Invasion after a series of spats on Twitter over his belief on what a peaceful resolution would look like. A recent Tweet from Musk tried to confirm that it truly was because of the Twitter fight that he decided to shut off Starlink communications to thousands in Ukraine who are actively fighting for their lives, angering everyone online.
The wrinkle in this story, however, is that according to documentation, Elon came to the Pentagon a full month beforehand and announced that if he didn't receive the funding he needed, that Starlink would start to experience interruptions in service in multiple regions of Ukraine, which is what started to happen just before the Twitter fight started. This is what caused the allegations that Musk is a war profiteer, because his estimates of actual cost versus what people in Ukraine are actively being charged for service use don't quite add up, with Musk's Pentagon figure being several times larger than what people are estimating it should truly cost to run the system.
Must read on Starlink in Ukraine via @cnn today and how SpaceX got paid vs. what it donated… https://t.co/NyjMNb1i5W pic.twitter.com/zCoCFS1fsn
— Lora Kolodny (@lorakolodny) October 14, 2022
So @elonmusk is whining about losing a lot of money on Starlinks for Ukraine.Meanwhile, may I present to you snippets of my bank statements.Thousands of Ukrainians, paying his company monthly.So the question is: did you really lose more money than you earned? pic.twitter.com/w8OX2EBiqf
— Melaniya Podolyak (@MelaniePodolyak) October 14, 2022
Ukrainians – whose average annual income is about $6000 per year – crowd-funded $9.6 million in only a day to buy RAM II kamikaze drones.Elon Musk – whose net worth is around $215 billion – wants U.S. taxpayers to pick up the tab for Starlink in Ukraine.
— Michael MacKay (@mhmck) October 14, 2022
Share Pin
Chewybunny
It is not an unreasonable demand that Starlink should at least somewhat be paid for – especially since Starlink in Ukraine is being provided for free, by what seems to be an unappreciative government. Yes, providing Starlink on company dime to the Ukrainian effort does give him some clout to be wrong about the conflict, and not be outright insulted by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany for it. It was a teachable moment, and instead it turned to another culture war shit fest. It could have been a moment for the Ukranian government, or representative of such to directly contact Musk and explain to him why even a UN referendum wouldn't work. I get that Ukraine is fighting an existential war (and winning), emotions are high, but calling Musk an Russian Asset, or a Putin Apologist for being ignorant, while he's providing Starlink to Ukraine for free – and contributing massively to their war effort mind you – is ridiculous.
SSmotzer
Who would have guessed the world's richest man would do something as heinous as throw away hundreds of human lives for a paycheck… oh wait, everyone.
Šaja_Manijak
that's what you get for trying to look cool on twatter by dunking on a petulant billionare with his hand on the plug.
Phhase
Let's get the numbers, and see. In the meantime, this ponce better keep the lights on.
Timey16
Elon Musk giving some real Woodrow Wilson "world savior complex" vibes
Proper Initiation
Looks like explicitly the opposite
Revic
I think there's a good illustration here of the difference between wanting to help vs. wanting to be the person that helped.