Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service would be free over the next month for those living in areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.
The company's website states, "Starlink aims to enable anyone impacted by a natural disaster to be able to access internet connectivity."
'Lawfare costs lives.'
"Starlink terminals will now work automatically without need for payment in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene," Musk wrote on X.
He initially announced plans to make the service free on Tuesday, telling his followers, "We are making a system update to allow all Starlinks in the affected areas to work, regardless of payment. Software update hopefully completed tonight. Tomorrow at the latest."
He stated that SpaceX sent "as many Starlink terminals as possible" to the areas impacted by the hurricane, noting that former President Donald Trump had alerted him to the need earlier this week.
On Monday, Trump told his supporters in Valdosta, Georgia, "I just spoke to Elon. We want to get Starlink hooked up because they have no communication whatsoever. Elon will always come through. We know that."
Now, corporate media outlets are accusing Musk and Trump of taking credit for something the Biden-Harris administration's Federal Emergency Management Agency was reportedly already doing.
A Wednesday press release from FEMA stated that the agency sent 67 Starlinks to North Carolina.
"40 Starlink satellite systems are available to help with responder communications and an additional 140 satellites are being shipped to assist with communications infrastructure restoration," FEMA said, noting that one Starlink would be deployed per county.
In a separate X post, Musk stated that Starlink's services would have been more readily available to those in North Carolina if the Federal Communications Commission had not blocked the company's federal grant. Starlink was set to receive an $885 million award to expand high-speed internet access, connecting more than 640,000 homes and businesses. However, the FCC rescinded the award in 2022, claiming that Starlink could not meet the program's requirements. The agency's decision was reaffirmed in December.
Then, in September, the FCC did an about-face and effectively accused Starlink of having a monopoly.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel stated that Starlink has "almost two-thirds of the satellites that are in space right now and has a very high portion of internet traffic. … Our economy doesn't benefit from monopolies. So we've got to invite many more space actors in, many more companies that can develop constellations and innovations in space."
Musk wrote on X, "Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina."
"Lawfare costs lives," he declared.
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Elon Musk's Starlink service finally penetrated through the remote Amazon jungle to offer members of the Marubo tribe access to the internet for the first time. The development was revealed earlier this month, but it appears that it has also caused serious issues.
While this technology could represent an upward shift in the tribe's way of life, it has also produced issues that were nonexistent before, such as addiction to pornography and social media, according to tribe elders.
The Brazilian tribe — made up of about 2,000 members — has been split on whether the advanced technology is truly a benefit to the community or not. The tribe resides around the Itui River.
Tsainama Marubo, 73, told the New York Times that when the technology first arrived, "everyone was happy. But now, things have gotten worse. Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet, they're learning the ways of the white people."
Tsainama may be on to something with this observation. Unlike painting or playing an instrument, the internet is often a passive medium, where the user sits back and consumes media with little effort. This is especially the case with pornography and social media, which are the two primary issues the tribe has addressed since receiving the technology.
'We need to abandon the naive belief that the internet is magically going to liberate societies.'
Additionally, the Marubo tribe is unlike most advanced cultures around the world. It is a chaste tribe, and kissing in public is often frowned upon. Alfredo Marubo — all members of the tribe use the same last name — expressed that offering the internet and all it encompasses to developing tribes could obliterate modes of decorum.
Alfredo mentioned that young men in the tribe have demonstrated "aggressive sexual behavior" since gaining access to pornography through the technology. Some have even shared pornographic videos in group chats.
He went on to say that "we're worried young people are going to want to try it," noting that there have been sexual kinks and fetishes the men have been exposed to.
"Everyone is so connected that sometimes they don't even talk to their own family."
Blaze News reached out to Michael Toscano, the executive director of the Institute for Family Studies, who said: "We have to remember that technologies should be designed to serve individuals, communities, families, and nations, not destroy them. Today, we see many families and institutions in America coming to realize that it is their right and responsibility to reject technologies that threaten them and their way of life."
Questions have been raised about the ethics of introducing the internet to remote peoples whose tribes could be adversely affected by it.
"This is not easy to do, because technologies have a tendency to spread and become culturally and politically dominant, and social life and human activity become organized around them," Toscano added.
"This is the story of social media, smartphones, the internet more broadly, but also automobiles and so much else. A certain heroism, therefore, is required to say no to the latest technological product."
If elders among the Marubo tribe have expressed that pornography represents a detriment to their way of life, it is worthwhile to ask whether they should have the means of accessing that material at all.
The Institute for Family Studies reported in 2022 that pornography is not a harmless activity. While pornographic material has become more widespread throughout the U.S., it has been associated with several negative social outcomes and personal experiences. Additionally, these issues arise more often among men than they do in women. This falls in line with what the Marubo tribe elders have reported since receiving access to such material.
Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, said: "This is just the latest evidence of the internet's addictiveness. This should be no surprise to us by now."
"We know that social media, for example, was purposefully developed to be addictive, since these companies profit from keeping people on their platforms for as long as possible," Schilling continued. "And there are many other segments of the internet — such as video games ... which are similarly effective in addicting users."
What this tribe's plight should drive home for us is that we cannot ignore the internet's downsides. This technology, while it does provide many benefits, can also be dangerous if we are not disciplined in how we use it.
The institute reported that those who reported watching pornography also represent higher rates of loneliness. Pornography also appears to distort one's view of his own personal appearance, which, again, is more prevalent in men than it is in women.
Additionally, men who reported watching pornography on a regular basis noted that they often feel insecure. "[Seventy-four] percent of men who report having watched pornography in the past 24 hours say they have felt self-conscious or insecure in the past week. Only 45% of men who say they have never watched pornography say the same."
Nathan Leamer, executive director of the Digital First Project, told Blaze News it appears that "Starlink has just unleashed a sudden revolution that could have real consequences."
Leamer compared what has happened to the Marubo tribe with giving a "10-year-old the keys to a brand-new car. I don't know about addiction, but it is clear that a challenge for this community in the Amazon is finding a way to balance the benefits of this transformative power with recognition that there are downsides like rampant porn, rampant distraction, etc."
When the internet was first introduced to the Marubo tribe, it was hailed as a positive advancement. Members of the tribe could quickly contact the authorities for help in emergency situations, such as deadly snake bites.
Enoque Marubo, 40, said the technology has already "saved lives." Members of the tribe have also discovered how to share educational information with surrounding tribes in the Amazon, and members have been able to get in touch with family members who have moved away.
Not only has the internet given the tribe the ability to solve practical issues, it has also given the youth in the tribe the ability to imagine what lies outside their immediate daily experience. They have been able to observe locations and cultures that are completely different from their own.
One teen wished to travel the world, and another aspired to be a dentist in São Paulo. Despite these advantages, the downsides cannot be ignored.
Enoque said that the day-to-day routine has suffered because of the technology. "In the village, if you don't hunt, fish, and plant, you don't eat."
TamaSay Marubo, 42, noted that while "some young people maintain our traditions," there are "others [who] just want to spend the whole afternoon on their phones."
"At this point, perhaps the only group of people who still have not been introduced to the internet ... is children," Schilling said.
"Each new generation of children who are born must be introduced anew to this technology. And given the mental issues our younger generations have developed as a result of social media use, it's obvious we must drastically change our approach," he added.
"At a minimum, we should enact age verification protections for all addictive and harmful aspects of the internet starting with pornography and then eventually enacting a minimum age for social media usage," Schilling concluded.
Some of these same trends have already been observed in the most advanced countries in the world. The National Institutes of Health reported in 2020 that "in the U.S., the proportion of young people between the ages of 13 and 17 years who have a smartphone has reached 89%, more than doubling over a six-year period; moreover, 70% of teenagers use social media multiple times per day, up from a third of teens in 2012."
Statista reported that in a 2023 survey, "97% of teenagers in the United States between 15 and 17 years had smartphone access at home. The percentage of younger respondents owning a smartphone was lower, 92%. Overall, 94% of the surveyed teens stated owning a smartphone device."
Members of the Marubo tribe fear that if this trend continues, their history and culture could be lost. As a result, they have limited access to the internet to two hours each morning, five hours each evening, and all day on Sunday, according to reports.
Aside from pornography and other addictive elements the technology presents, the tribespeople have fallen victim to online scams because they lack digital literacy. And some of the youth are conversing with strangers online.
Mike Wacker, a software engineer, told Blaze News that "we need to abandon the naive belief that the internet is magically going to liberate societies."
It appears that the Marubo tribe is lacking the ability to regulate the internet in a sufficient way that benefits the community.
Toscano said that the desire for guardrails around certain elements of the internet is why many are "turning to lawmakers to regulate technologies, because the most effective solutions to the problems that they present turn out to be collective solutions."
"Only law and state regulation are up to the challenge. This is what makes the effect of the internet on these tribesmen so tragic," he added.
"They were given powerful systems that could only be developed under the condition of advanced state capacity, and that very same advanced state capacity is necessary to bring these systems to heel. By sending them Starlink, the tribesmen have been totally exposed to a power with which they are not equipped to contend."
However, it appears that Flora Dutra, a Brazilian activist who works with indigenous tribes, does not see it this way. She suggested that the worries and fears around the technology have been overblown. She went on to say that the tribespeople "wanted and deserved" access to the internet.
It seems there is still something to be said for equipping a culture with powerful tools that they do not yet have the language or knowledge to navigate in a safe and productive way.
"We ourselves are only now realizing the power that the internet has over us," Toscano said. "They [the Marubo tribe] would have been better off without it. Machines are made for man, not man for the machine."
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A new biography of Elon Musk claims that the South African billionaire "secretly ordered" his engineers to turn off Starlink services near the Crimean coast last year, thereby thwarting a Ukrainian "sneak attack" on the Russian naval fleet, according to CNN.
Musk responded to the allegation on X Thursday, stating that "SpaceX did not deactivate anything," as he had not agreed to requests to activate the orbital internet service "all the way to Sevastapol" for fear of becoming complicit in a "major act of war."
Notwithstanding Musk's explanation, critics and elements of the Ukrainian government have lashed out at the billionaire, claiming he is responsible for the deaths of Ukrainian civilians resultant of strikes launched by the Russian vessels left undamaged in the Black Sea.
Ukraine, still working to oust occupying Russian forces, has been aided for over a year by Elon Musk's company Starlink, which itself was launched in 2018.
Starlink is a constellation comprising thousands of satellites in low orbit, roughly 341 miles overhead, providing earthlings with corresponding ground antennas with broadband internet.
Owing to the destruction inflicted upon Ukrainian communications systems and power infrastructure by Russian invaders, the country faced an uphill battle in the way of coordinating its defense, reported CBS News.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the country's minister of digital transformation, implored Musk on Feb. 26, 2022, to "provide Ukraine with Starlink stations."
Two days later, Fedorov was thanking Musk for the first of numerous shipments of Starlink terminals.
With stable internet restored, Wired reported Ukrainians were once again able to call their relatives and that the military was in a position to better organize various counteroffensives.
Rose Croshier, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, stressed the system's strategic importance, telling Wired, "In Ukraine you could see immediately that Starlink and other constellations mean you have the opportunity to have a resilient system protected from traditional ground attacks or control."
Dmytro Zinchuk, the head of network operations for the internet provider Freenet, said, "When there is no connection at all, Starlink is just a salvation for people who have been without connection for many weeks," reported NBC News.
Recognizing their utility and the corresponding need, the U.S. got in on the action, with USAID subsidizing some of the thousands of terminals SpaceX moved into Ukraine via Poland.
Like Fedorov — who estimated Starlink's contributions were worth over $100 million as of early 2023 — President Volodymyr Zelensky ultimately thanked Musk for the support.
Musk's support was not, however, unconditional.
Walter Isaacson, a former CEO of both CNN and the Aspen Institute, has penned multiple biographies, including tomes about Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs. His latest is about Elon Musk.
CNN reported that in his new book, Isaacson claimed that Musk covertly ordered his engineers to turn off his company's Starlink near the Crimean coast to thwart a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet.
Fedorov allegedly pleaded with Musk via text during the operation, asking him to restore connectivity for the submarine drones and telling Musk about their capabilities, according to Isaacson.
In one instance last October, the BBC reported Ukraine had carried out a "massive" drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet using nine submarine drones.
Footage taken from one of the submarine drones shows what appears to be a Russian helicopter attempting to shoot it out of the water.
— (@)
Isaacson wrote that Musk responded to Fedorov, noting he was impressed by the submarine but would not restore internet connection because it was too provocative, adding that Ukraine was "going too far and inviting strategic defeat," reported the Daily Mail.
As a result, the submarine drones strapped with explosives en route to the fleet allegedly "lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly."
The rationale behind the alleged decision was that Russia would respond to the bombing with nuclear weapons.
Musk has expressed this fear before, stating on Oct. 17, 2022, "If Russia is faced with the choice of losing Crime or using battlefield nukes, they will choose the latter. We've already sanctioned/cutoff Russia in every possible way, so what more do they have left to lose? If we nuke Russia back, they will nuke us and then we have WW3."
Musk added, "Crimea is absolutely seen as a core part of Russia by Russia. Crimea is also of critical national security importance to Russia, as it is their southern navy base. From their standpoint losing Crimea is like USA losing Hawaii & Pearl Harbor."
CNN stressed that the alleged unilateral move of immense geostrategic consequence by the world's richest man made him "a power broker U.S. officials couldn't ignore."
In the biography, Musk reportedly told Isaacson, "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."
While some lauded what they perceived to be a passive effort aimed at avoiding a nuclear holocaust, various critics lashed out at Musk Thursday, with some noting that aiding the Ukrainians in repelling invaders would not constitute an escalation but rather self-defense. Others posting pictures of the remains of civilians killed by Crimean naval strikes.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, stated, "Sometimes a mistake is much more than just a mistake. By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via #Starlink interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities."
Podolyak further suggested that as a result, "civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego."
Musk, the largest shareholder of Starlink, responded to the report of Isaacson's claims, stressing, "The Starlink regions in question were not activated. SpaceX did not deactivate anything."
He added, "There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastapol. The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."
Facing mounting outrage, Musk tweeted Thursday evening, "Both sides should agree to a truce. Every day that passes, more Ukrainian and Russian youth die to gain and lose small pieces of land, with borders barely changing. This is not worth their lives."
This tweet in turn prompted some to suggest that a sunken Russian fleet might have served to expedite a truce.
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There were many celebrities who threw a hissy fit when their Twitter verification badges were revoked last week. However, Stephen King wasn't pleased when his Twitter verification badge was restored by Elon Musk.
Last week, Twitter began revoking legacy blue checkmarks for those who don't pay $8 for the "Twitter Blue" subscription. Celebrities couldn't fathom having their blue checkmarks taken from them, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Bette Midler, and Alyssa Milano.
Stephen King noticed that his verification badge was revoked, but then quickly reinstated.
"My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t," the horror writer tweeted on Thursday.
Musk replied to King, "You’re welcome namaste."
\u201c@StephenKing @amayamario You\u2019re welcome namaste \ud83d\ude4f\u201d— Stephen King (@Stephen King) 1682022380
The billionaire revealed that he is personally paying for the Twitter Blue subscriptions of King, NBA legend LeBron James, and "Star Trek" actor William Shatner.
Not content with having his verification restored, King turned the situation into an opportunity to virtue signal. The liberal King told Musk to give the $8 subscription fee and more to the Prytula Foundation, a charity that has a self-described focus of "strengthening the Defense Forces of Ukraine and providing assistance to the civilians affected by Russian aggression."
"I think Mr. Musk should give my blue check to charity. I recommend the Prytula Foundation, which provides lifesaving services in Ukraine. It's only $8, so perhaps Mr. Musk could add a bit more," King tweeted on Saturday.
Musk silenced King with one question.
"I've donated $100M to Ukraine, how much have you donated? (We turned down the DoD money btw)," Musk fired back.
Musk included an October 2022 tweet from Ukraine's digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov thanking the Tesla CEO for donating Starlink internet systems.
At the time of publication, the progressive King had yet to respond to Musk's question about his donations to Ukraine.
\u201c@StephenKing I\u2019ve donated $100M to Ukraine, how much have you donated?\n\n(We turned down the DoD money btw)\u201d— Stephen King (@Stephen King) 1682171194
The SpaceX CEO sent Starlink internet systems to Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
In March 2022, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Musk he was "grateful" for the Starlink systems.
"Talked to @elonmusk. I'm grateful to him for supporting Ukraine with words and deeds. Next week we will receive another batch of Starlink systems for destroyed cities. Discussed possible space projects. But I’ll talk about this after the war," Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
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A week after the storm, a man came into the GOP office to ask about volunteering. 'I’ll have to do it around my wife’s funeral,' the teary-eyed man said. 'My country needs me.'
The FCC's war on Musk may have contributed to Helene's death toll, which is already at 138 Americans across six states, with many hundreds still missing.
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