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Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

nytimes.com

21–30 of 207 posts

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#21
post #14

Is this a principled defense of free speech or a case of a man treating ostensibly independent companies as divisions of his personal conglomerate?

The court orders for Twitter in Brazil were way more tame and based on judicial procedures than orders that Elon followed from Turkey and other less democratic countries. There's no visible rhyme or reason why he's fighting the Brazilian courts much harder than orders from other less democratic countries, something else is happening unrelated to free speech or any lip service he pays to.

He may be doing it for personal ego reasons.

But OTOH it is pointless to 'fight' the judicial system of e.g. Russia, or flawed democracies like Turkey which stage a coup. OTOH brazil is somewhat more democratic and it makes sense to appeal to their democratic institutions.

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#22
post #15
post #12

This storyline was a rare case of me supporting Elon, but once again, he goes too far, childishly, for his ego. He is just proving a lot of people i don't particularly like right, that billionaires are supranational powers. Which does support a very marxist view on capitalism (and productivism sadly), that it enable money to create power above political power.

Haha - oh no, he is going to far with allowing free speech. The sender and the tone is more important to you I guess?

[flagged]

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#23
It's frightening how authoritarian the Left has become around the world. Ambiguous laws about'hate' seem poised to protect the world from thought crimes by curtailing basic human rights.

In this context Musk is right and has the power to bring change. He will lose a lot of that power under a Harris presidency that has advertised it plans to continue the crusade against freedom of speech.

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#24

X is turning into a wasteland of angry people and bots. Bluesky is much more refreshing, similar to the old twitter.

Twitter is far from a wasteland. Nothing that matters is exclusively on Bluesky, but a lot of it is on Twitter. The "old media" heavily relies on Twitter, too. Anger is a major driver of engagement on any medium, it's only natural that this shows through on Twitter.

Alternative platforms appear to be more civil because they're islands of echo-chambers. The anger is still there, it's just directed at the more abstract out-group, rather than any individuals that are part of the conversation.

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#25
post #15
post #12

This storyline was a rare case of me supporting Elon, but once again, he goes too far, childishly, for his ego. He is just proving a lot of people i don't particularly like right, that billionaires are supranational powers. Which does support a very marxist view on capitalism (and productivism sadly), that it enable money to create power above political power.

Haha - oh no, he is going to far with allowing free speech. The sender and the tone is more important to you I guess?

Was it free speech when he banned a bunch of leftists for disagreeing with his views?

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#28
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I dont care about his motives - why should i ?

Because he's a huge hypocrite and only uses the excuse of free speech to enable right wing radicals, while not granting it to anyone he disagrees with.

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#29
post #8

Just how important are the ground stations in Brazil? (I don't mean the end user terminals.) If Starlink will basically continue to work well enough if those are seized, it seems like the obvious next steps are going to be crypto/stablecoin payments and a focus on small form factor terminals like Starlink Mini that can bypass customs.

And then Starlink users get fined or arrested and Starlink Minis get seized. Also how good does it look for an international company to sell as evading customs and imports taxes.

Crypto and stablecoin don't make the physical reality of owning such a device disappear.

Re: Starlink Defies Order to Block X in Brazil

#30
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha - oh no, he is going to far with allowing free speech. The sender and the tone is more important to you I guess?

Was it free speech when he banned a bunch of leftists for disagreeing with his views?

No (I have no idea who he has banned or not) but that sounds like a powertrip!
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