(I’d also throw in a ban on domestic content owners providing training material to xAI, but I’ll admit I have a vindictive streak.)
Starlink is providing internet, so any of their users’ traffic could be monitored or access cut/manipulated.
Forget surveillance: refusal to support. (Bricking has no plausible deniability.) If you don’t do X, Y and Z I will be forced to geoblock your country; if that causes cars to stop driving so be it.
Tesla brought EVs to the mainstream.
How exactly are they a threat to the free world?
but in this reality now they are helping and have been for awhile.
articles like those you have linked have always been appearing, but it only highlights how useful starlink has been.
what other company has helped provide internet to ukraine?
They may have. Musk denies it. Kyiv doesn’t, to my knowledge, seem to have pressed it. Can’t quite say it’s not true. But can definitely say it’s not known.
That’s the difference between a threat and an attack.
The reality is they are currently helping, have been, and noone else has in that same regard.
-- edit --
Those articles linked below are about "talks" and proposals.
As of now, noone is deployed in Ukraine other than Starlink.
Those companies highlighted don't even have the capacity.
They are just blowing hot air for publicity. They aren't helping at all, they are just using the situation to advertise.
-- edit 2 --
I see, I must have missed that Eurosat was deployed in Ukraine. Albeit in a much more limited form than Starlink.
That's good at least one other company has helped.
However, you still have to credit SpaceX for enabling the ability to send the satellites up there in the first place :)
Sure you could subsidize the competitors, but they'll be sending a huge portion of that to Starlink anyway to launch them.
Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Geo are currently providing services in Ukraine [1][2].
Their leadership, meanwhile, isn’t trying to undermine Kyiv at home and abroad.
> those articles linked below are about "talks" and proposals
Nope. The proposals are for expansion. Eutelsat currently provides service in Ukraine.
(Out of curiosity, where did you read that Starlink has a monopoly on satellite internet in Ukraine? Always helpful to keep track of bad sources.)
> those companies highlighted don't even have the capacity
Sure, Europe fucked up by relying on Musk. Now they have the opportunity to fix it. In the meantime, it’s insanity to divert any resources to Musk that could go to building a competitor, even if heavily subsidised. (U.S. ignoring WTO rules means dumping and state-support rules no longer apply.)
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/f4cc04f0-5ccf-44d8-b5c1-f3eebc9cd...
[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/eutelsat-committed-...
The majority of the Starlink terminals are now paid by the countries on public funds (USAID, and the EU countries).
It's not exactly cheap (4'500 USD/month at the beginning of the war, now 1'500 USD/month, for a total of 0.5B/year in revenue for SpaceX).
Based on Musk’s comments, he just kneecapped them in favour of Moscow [1]. Negotiators are currently using Starlink as leverage to Molotov-Ribbentrop Ukraine’s mineral resources [2].
That said, Musk is a liar. So absent a statement from Kyiv absolving him (I honestly haven’t looked for this), the best we can say is we don’t know.
[1] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699917639043404146?s=46
[2] https://www.reuters.com/business/us-could-cut-ukraines-acces...
Musk would be correct that private individuals should not have this much power, should not take decisions about what is and isn't legal — which makes it even more hypocritical for him to have had a fight with Brazil or the UK government or offer support for any political party in Germany, let alone to be wielding a chainsaw on-stage at CPAC, being the public face of DOGE, taking his kid into the Oval Office to have a chat with the press, etc.
Tesla's value gives Elon his money which also gives him his power. For obvious reasons Elon is VERY associated with Tesla. People are viewing purchasing a Tesla as giving Elon money, which isn't totally wrong but isn't as direct as people as saying either.
In the case of Tesla the threat is Elon himself and how he chooses to use his power. The cars (in my opinion) are not a threat IRT surveillance etc. I think its easy enough to cover the cameras etc. Of course I can be wrong, as I often am.
In the case of Starlink.... being able to use communication and internet access during an emergency to make money, or use it for influence is pretty powerful. particularly as the US govt (which Elon is a part of) pivots towards an alliance with Russia, starlink is a massive liability that Ukraine cannot count on AT ALL. Nothing is stopping Elon from pulling access to starlink at the behest of Putin. America is already pausing anti-russian activity IRT cyber attacks etc under the guise of "good faith during active negotiations". Why wouldn't starlink be next? Why can't starlink be used to suppress access to things. Remember the stories about ISPs injecting ads into content that they didn't own? Why can't starlink just start serving propaganda and misinformation instead of actual content?
These are a threat because they are not being used for the good of humanity and civilization. Elon has deluded himself into thinking that he knows what is best for the world and is using his power/money/influence/technology to assert those ideas and opinions onto the world.
Until we have literally any evidence to the contrary, Elon, Trump, and Putin can all be named interchangeably
Getting rid of your Tesla would, at least, eliminate a very sensitive flow of personal data about you to Tesla.
First by playing 'free market' and getting bilions in incentives from taxpayer money. And then they will be a threat by the time Tesla will lock you into a subscription model and starlink sell your data to the government the first time it will feel threatened.
Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
The company owned by the dude who wants immediate Ukraine surrender and threatens Ukraine armed forces with disconnecting them?
Oh so helpful.