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Comment by Imustaskforhelp

14 hours ago

> Gps is free to use. Running your own gnss service requires an atomic clock and possibly separate transmission hardware, which is possible, but adds cost, volume, and weight.

Thanks you provide some great insights on why starlink didnt use gps but still if starlink wants to focus itself as the uncensorable internet in places like protests etc. I feel like they can probably do this after this recent incident

I just can't feel but sad right now because starlink was still providing activists ways to report outside and that helped protestors a lot and information. Now even starlink got removed because starlink tried to save money and I think might not have thought about what if gps itself gets blocked.

This is giving very bad signals for Iran. Is there any way now that Protestors are able to communicate to the outside world/ activists be able to report data outside?

16 comments

Imustaskforhelp

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afavour  14 hours ago

> if starlink wants to focus itself as the uncensorable internet in places like protests etc

I’m not sure Musk would actually want that though, especially these days.

  • hcurtiss  13 hours ago

    Why not? Has Musk shut off Starlink? The reporting out of Ukraine was almost entirely wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_in_the_Russian-Ukrain...

    • lostlogin  13 hours ago

      From your link, with good sources:

      In 2022, Elon Musk denied a Ukrainian request to extend Starlink's coverage up to Russian-occupied Crimea during a counterattack on a Crimean port, from which Russia had been launching attacks against Ukrainian civilians; doing so would have violated US sanctions on Russia.[18] This event was widely reported in 2023, erroneously characterizing it as Musk "turning off" Starlink coverage in Crimea.[19][20] SpaceX executives repeatedly stated that Starlink needed to remain a civilian network;[21][22][12] in late 2022, as Starlink was being used as a tool in combat in Ukraine, SpaceX announced Starshield, a Starlink-like program designed for government customers.[23][21] Musk is reported to have said that Ukraine was "going too far" in threatening to inflict a “strategic defeat” on the Kremlin.[24]

      Musk, like Trump, has an interesting relationship with Russia. The investigations into that have been quashed, so we don’t get to find out about the rumoured Kremlin calls he was making.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/business/dealbook/musk-pu...

      1 reply →

  • sawjet  13 hours ago

    Why not?

    • afavour  12 hours ago

      Because his enthusiasm for free speech is variable depending on whether he likes the speech or not.

    • Forgeties79  12 hours ago

      Because Musk is a fickle, unethical individual with poor impulse control and too much money who only talks about high minded concepts like “free speech” and “battling censorship” when it serves his interests at that moment.

      2 replies →

paganel  14 hours ago

Yes, ask their Mossad direct and local handlers (as per Mike Pompeo [1]) about how things are going, I’m sure that this being Mossad they have a ground-based way to get the information out.

[1] https://xcancel.com/mikepompeo/status/2007180411638620659

  • woodruffw  12 hours ago

    Mike Pompeo is a private citizen; is there some reason to believe that he has direct knowledge of foreign involvement in these protests? It seems unlikely, and doubly so that he’d actually disclose it if he did.