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
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      3510 months 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
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        3510 months ago

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

        • @Coreidan@lemmy.world
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          210 months ago

          by having it in more capable, less idiotic hands.

          Whoa hey let’s not get too carried away. We are talking about the US government after all.

      • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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        1110 months ago

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

        • Overzeetop
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          110 months 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
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        410 months 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…