Steve HermanSep 7, 2023
CNN: Elon Musk secretly ordered engineers to turn off his company’s #Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt from a new biography. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html
Show threadTopKnot

@w7voa

That seems to indicate that Elon is a foreign agent and is required to register with the DOJ. I'm not a lawyer and know nothing about this law but how can that new tidbit of information mean any thing else?

A foreign agent also doing work for the US government? Seems like a conflict of interest to me.

Sep 7, 2023 at 1:27pmWeb
Show threadAlanSep 7, 2023
@TopKnot Technically the US is not at war with Russia and not allied with Ukraine so technically this was likely legal. I don't think the US has laws banning civilians from intervening in conflicts the US is not involved in?
Show threadAlanSep 7, 2023
@TopKnot Also he doesn't do work for the US government. He owns and acts as C-level officer for several companies that have US government contracts. I'm pretty sure the US government also has contractors that are non-US businesses or owned by non-US individuals. Don't make me defend this numpty.
Show threadAlanSep 7, 2023
@TopKnot The US government could "punish" his behavior by reducing their use of SpaceX but I'm sure the contracts can't easily be terminated prematurely and the US government seems to have made itself dependent on SpaceX by pivoting to the private space sector before there was any real competition.