The Pentagon awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX a one-year contract for Starshield in September.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter on Saturday to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get access to SpaceX’s Starshield, a satellite communication network designed specifically for the military.

The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield available to U.S. military forces in Taiwan, SpaceX could violate its Pentagon contract, which requires “global access” to Starshield technology.

  • Flying Squid
    2•4 months ago

    A) The Ukrainian military says where the Russians are. Starlink access is turned off there.

    B) The Ukrainian military says where the Russians are. Starlink access is turned off there.

    Yet again, this is something Elon already did to the Ukrainians. So all you are doing is saying is that somehow it’s impossible for Elon to stop Starlink from being used in a certain geographic area when, yet again, that already happened.

    Honestly, it sounds like you think somehow the Russian military is just superior somehow.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•4 months ago

      I feel like you are fundamentally misunderstanding me. Battle lines are not static or cut and dry. Neither militaries KNOW exactly where the enemy is. It isn’t that simple

      • Flying Squid
        1•4 months ago

        Again, weird, since Ukraine knew exactly where Russia was and exactly where they were when Elon didn’t allow them to access Starlink.

        So, again, sounds to me like you’re saying Russia has superior tech powers Ukraine does not.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•4 months ago

          I have no clue how you’re coming to that conclusion. Starlink blanket blocked access from Crimea. Regardless of whether that was right or wrong, this doesn’t prove that Starlink knows where Russian and Ukrainian troops, can track the battle line, and precisely turn off access based on that geographic area

          • Flying Squid
            1•4 months ago

            Starlink blanket blocked access from Crimea.

            Oh, so they can cut off areas Russia controls. Such as… oh… I don’t know… Crimea?

            • @[email protected]English
              1•4 months ago

              Look, I don’t know if you’re being intentionally obtuse here, but not all areas are black and white. There is ambiguity in the world, particularly in battlefields. This feels a bit like a bad faith argument

              • Flying Squid
                1•4 months ago

                I’m not being obtuse at all.

                You have claimed this entire time that Elon Musk can somehow not shut down Starlink in areas where Russia already controls despite him doing exactly that thing. And no matter how many times I explain to you that he did exactly that thing including showing you a link where he did exactly that thing, you keep talking about battlefield movements and things like that when, again, we are talking about areas where Russia already controls, such as Crimea, where Elon did exactly that thing.

                So if anyone is being obtuse, it’s the person who keeps denying that something that already happened is possible.

                • @[email protected]English
                  1•4 months ago

                  Man, wtf. If Starlink is shut down in areas Russia already controls (it largely is), then what is the problem???

                  Starlink doesn’t have fine control over what they can turn off, the world is separated into “cells”. Starlink can’t broadly turn off Starlink for ONLY Russians on the battle lines, it would affect Ukrainians too

                  • Flying Squid
                    1•4 months ago

                    The problem is it isn’t. In fact, service was restored in Crimea.

                    The problem is that it should be and it can be. And it isn’t because Elon is helping Putin out. I’m not sure why you don’t understand that.