Starlink controversy highlights Musk’s global influence

Starlink drama puts spotlight on Musk’s global stature

Elon Musk and his business’s role in a recent dispute over Ukraine’s access to Starlink and its military network is putting a spotlight on the tech mogul’s outsized influence on the international stage .

Following about 10 days of confusion and finger-pointing over what caused the slowdown of Starlink and its military-grade version — Starshield — in Ukraine, Musk acknowledged his company, SpaceX, was behind the restrictions on Starlink’s commercial services.

While the exact decision behind the specific Starshield slowdown is still contested, the debacle is underscoring the vast reach the world’s richest man has on global and military affairs.

“A lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea that an individual like a corporate leader, [is] essentially making foreign policy decisions about access, though it’s not clear what the alternative is in this case,” Michael Horowitz, director of the Defense and National Security program at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Hill.

Ukraine has used Starlink’s commercial services since the beginning of its war with Russia and later added Starshield through SpaceX’s contract with the Pentagon.

SpaceX, which was incorporated in 2002, is the largest satellite and space company, dominating the field and in turn, making Musk’s leadership even more important.

“No unelected civilian titan of industry should have the ability to interfere with a war in the way that SpaceX did here,” Andrew Grotto, director of Stanford University’s program on geopolitics, technology and governance, told The Hill.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter , we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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More than 120 organizations in a new letter are calling on House and Senate leadership to include the STOP CSAM Act in the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) when they’re back in session.

The bill, the Strengthening Transparency and Obligation to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (STOP CSAM) Act, would allow victims of child sexual abuse material to sue the companies that host it.

The letter, sent Wednesday, said the bill’s passage would “represent the boldest action Congress has taken against the scourge of online child sexual exploitation in a generation.”

Sponsored by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the bill was included in the manager’s amendment of the Senate version of the NDAA.

Its companion bill in the House has not moved.

While both chambers have repeatedly expressed wanting to do more on kids online safety, intraparty and partisan fights have stopped nearly every kids safety bill from passing out of Congress. When lawmakers return after the midterms, they will have just just over a month before the new Congress begins.

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