SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk reportedly caused a geopolitical crisis last year, when Ukrainian forces—which have relied heavily on the company’s Starlink satellite communications—were on the verge of striking Russian naval vessels off the coast of Crimea with submersible drones. Concerned that the attack would provoke Russia into using nuclear weapons, Musk unilaterally opted to sever the submarines’ satellite connection, throwing a wrench in the entire assault.

The incident—shared by CNN based on an adapted excerpt from an upcoming book by Walter Isaacson—demonstrates Musk’s increasing unwillingness to lend his satellite network to offensive maneuvers waged by Ukraine. “How am I in this war?” “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

After foiling the attack, Musk reportedly received a desperate text from a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who asked that Musk reinstate the Starlink connection to the drones. “I just want you—the person who is changing the world through technology—to know this,” Fedorov wrote. But Musk refused to reverse course, telling Fedorov that Ukraine “is now going too far and inviting strategic defeat.”

Apparently he was worried that the assault would provoke nuclear war. Musk showing actual thought for the first time in ever.

  • CarbonScored [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    A book written by the fucking ex-CEO of CNN states that a drone went offline last year and it's Elon's fault. There's no evidence, no names, no story, just waffle and assertions. This is just distracting noise based on nothing.

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Oh good, if they're running pieces like this with evidence as flimsy as that, then he's definitely being viewed as a liability and is likely to have something funny happen to him.

      • CarbonScored [any]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Agreed, it has all the marks of a little inter-bourgeois spat.