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The issue is Starlink is run by a political actor. Elon was using his Starlink leverage to try to affect US foreign policy. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/

• whimsicalism 2y ago
  Which is why they denied FCC rural broadband funding to Starlink? The US government never had a contract with Starlink for Ukraine war usage. It does not seem to me like a reasonable expectation that a civilian company provide services for conducting a foreign war - nor that they be punished in unrelated contracts for refusing to do so. Companies are permissibly allowed to be run by actors with political interests. By contrast, the government should not be making contracting decisions for political/speech reasons.
  • maliker 2y ago
    My read of the rural broadband decision is that terrestrial broadband providers lobbied hard to get Starlink thrown out on a technically (not enough bandwidth).
    • whimsicalism 2y ago
      It is only a party-line decision because of Musk's politics. Democrats aren't more susceptible to lobbying. To me it is clear that we are returning to the politics of the 20th century (ie. flexing regulatory arms to punish speech/actions we don't like). It makes sense - we really only had a brief respite from that from the 90s until ~2016 or so.