U.S. billionaire Elon Musk has agreed to sell a portion of Starlink assets to the U.S. Department of Defense, removing himself from decision-making regarding geofencing Ukraine’s access to the satellite internet service

  • HTTP_404_NotFound@lemmyonline.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Don’t laugh too hard. We are the ones paying the bill for it.

    ie, Our taxes are now indirectly ended up directly in Elon’s pocket. And, I can promise he didn’t cut us a deal.

    • Gork@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s a small price to pay if it results in saving Ukrainian lives by having it in more capable, less idiotic hands.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      You never know. The threat of an extraordinary rendition to Ukraine might have kept the price down.

      • Overzeetop@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        After hearing of the story I wondered if Elon could be charged under Ukrainian law as some sort of accomplice / aid to enemy operations and potentially detained and extradited by a country more actively supportive of anti-Russian operations should Elon go on vacation to such a country. (do I have to say Poland? Because I’m thinking Poland.)

    • AnAngryAlpaca@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Did Starlink and SpaceX not already receive a lot of government funding for their rockets etc? You could argue that the taxpayers should own x% because they paid the bill for it…