| ▲ | MayeulC 2 hours ago |
| The timing is interesting, given that it comes days after Musk said Ukraine had gone "too far" striking Yandex data centers. Putting other considerations aside, these strikes could be interpreted as direct retaliation against strikes on Ukrainian data centers days before. That said, depending on a single piece of tech is not a good idea (as evidenced by the Russians when they lost starlink access). Russians have resorted to long-range mesh radios, Ukrainians should probably integrate that as well (though it does increase BOM costs). The other dependency is Chinese suppliers, who supply both sides but may prefer to favor Russia. It is a huge liability for Ukraine as it supplies 80% of the parts that perform 70% of battlefield duties, and could stop anytime (besides known design leaks to the adversary, etc). Russia is even relocating whole production lines to evade sanctions. Ukraine has been fighting with one arm behind its back, this is the latest development in the series of seemingly-arbitrary limitations imposed on it. |
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| ▲ | amelius an hour ago | parent | next [-] |
| > That said, depending on a single piece of tech is not a good idea Yes and putting a CEO of a tech company in command of strategic infrastructure is not a good idea either. |
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| ▲ | jacquesm an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | A tech company CEO that has some ethics issues. | | |
| ▲ | throw93839383u an hour ago | parent [-] | | Musk himself was on ukrainian kill list (myrotvorets). Please have some sympathy. But it is not really his network anymore. Part of starlink is operated by US military, and he has no saying what it will be used for! | | |
| ▲ | Lio 35 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | That sounds like something completely made up by trolls. It's like me saying I'm on the Pope's Super Secret Christmas List because some random on Reddit said so. It's just amateur propaganda. | |
| ▲ | kortzeus an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The list is run by some random dudes and has no relation to government or military formations. |
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| ▲ | rapsey an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The guy who built it should not be running it because it is too important? | | |
| ▲ | jacquesm an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Indeed. The ability to build something does not come with an automatic right to continue to operate it during a war. That said, I would assume Musk did not reach this decision in a vacuum. What surprises me is that there has never been a leak from inside SpaceX about the circumstances of these decisions. | | |
| ▲ | ThunderSizzle an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | How would a county like Ukraine go about regulating a company like Starlink in this manner? You can't nationalize another country's business, especially when their assets are floating in space disconnectes entirely from your country. If they want to regulate it, they need to build it first.
Ukraine has no ability to regulate Starlink. It's not theirs to regulate. | | |
| ▲ | jacquesm an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Ukraine clearly can not regulate a company like Starlink. But the United States has that level of control and Musk is either using it to benefit putin or he's using it to benefit trump. Both of these could be fixed and could be fixed in relatively short order if there was the will to do so. The rest of your comment is just restating the obvious so I won't respond to that. | |
| ▲ | throw93839383u an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | > How would a county like Ukraine go about regulating a company like Starlink in this manner? Kill its CEO. Musk was already on ukranian kill list (myrotvorets) in 2022, that failed and Musk is still alive. Another option is to sabotage its infrastructure, They (allegedly) blow up pipeline in europe, they did not like. Blowing up launch sites in texas is within their capabilities. |
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| ▲ | throw0101a an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > What surprises me is that there has never been a leak from inside SpaceX about the circumstances of these decisions. What point is there in trying to get sources to leak things when decisions are made at the top on a whim, versus policy options being analyzed video position papers and reports. It's the same as the current White House: there's no point in trying to cultivate sources as decisions come from one place, with no consensus seeking, often in the middle of the night, and can be changed a few hours later. | |
| ▲ | rapsey an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Musk has been pretty vocal. Past controversy was literally the government asking him to do something illegal. Starshield is starlink for the US military. I highly doubt this controversy is anything other than SpaceX doing what the US gov tells them. | | |
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| ▲ | chpatrick an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | This is like the CEO of Lockheed Martin deciding what can be bombed... | | |
| ▲ | rapsey an hour ago | parent [-] | | And where does it say this was SpaceX decision? Seems highly unlikely to me. Starshield is litteraly a US gov project which this is about. Not the public network at all. The title is clickbait honestly. | | |
| ▲ | jacquesm an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Did you see all the protests by Musk how he did this under pressure? Hm. Neither did I. | |
| ▲ | chpatrick an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Is Ukraine using Starshield or the commercial one? I thought it was the latter. |
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| ▲ | eqvinox an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | This is about regulating it, not running it. When things need regulation, putting the creators in charge is almost never a good idea. | |
| ▲ | exitb an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Is it uncommon for companies that produce dual use tech to have stronger oversight? | |
| ▲ | dgellow an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Obviously, yes. At some point that becomes infrastructure the rest of society relies upon, not just a personal project for someone as unhinged as musk | |
| ▲ | an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | Muromec an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | >The guy who built it should not be running it because it is too important? What's so radical about this anyway? |
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| ▲ | Maakuth an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I don't understand how it's "too far" in any way, provided that Russia has since the start of the war struck against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including datacenters. The only way I can read this is as an example of heavily pro-Russian bias. |
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| ▲ | jacquesm an hour ago | parent [-] | | "heavily pro-Russian bias" That's a very friendly term. I would use aiding and abetting a common enemy instead. And make no mistake: russia never stopped being an enemy of the USA, they just switched their tactics. Trump is probably the best ROI of any investment ever. | | |
| ▲ | lostmsu 6 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Right, because Starlink is provided to Russia and denied to Ukraine. | |
| ▲ | Maakuth an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Calling things as they are earns heavy downvotes here. It does make me think not all of the bots were in those Yandex DCs. | | |
| ▲ | jacquesm an hour ago | parent [-] | | IDGAF. Things are what they are. The current US president might as well be a russian asset if he isn't in actual fact and his from-the-heart-saluting side-kick is spending his money all over the world to help get more fascists elected. It's pretty clear. | | |
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| ▲ | eptcyka an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Long range mesh on planes? Otherwise, it's pretty difficult to setup base stations in your enemies territory. |
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| ▲ | luke5441 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | The drones themselves build a mesh network during an attack. Russia does this as well. I would also guess it is not that hard to setup a base station? With Operation Spiderweb they were able to start the drones from enemy territory... | | | |
| ▲ | throw93839383u an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Allegedly Ukraine was using UK and their extensive network of satelites to target russia. So starlink withdrawal is not a real problem. |
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| ▲ | GJim an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > The timing is interesting, given that it comes days after Musk said Ukraine had gone "too far More like Zelensky, in stating the Trump-Russia diesel deal was a 'weak decision by strong partners', has pissed-off the Orange One with his famously thin skin. America, your president is a liability to the free world. |
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| ▲ | darkwi11ow an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It is likely last weeks/months while orange man has unchecked power before new parliament turns him into a lame duck. So he is hurrying up to trade his final favors with his fascist friends all over the world. |
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| ▲ | GuestFAUniverse an hour ago | parent | prev [-] |
| The Russian bot farms helped Trump and Musk to gain power. Same fascism, same colors (blue, red, white). Only the logo is a little different, but not much. |
