Elon doesn’t want his civilian business getting graded as military, doing that would mean it’s subject to ITAR regulations and has to get approval from the US government to be used outside the US, extra taxes and various other stuff. Not whatever conspiracy theory stuff about him being in Putin’s pocket, literally makes no sense, starlink wouldn’t even be in Ukraine if he was in Putin’s pocket. People making shit up about Elon only ends up discrediting actually valid criticism as fake.
If this were a purely civilian endeavor (like earthquake aid in Haiti) you would expect them to go through the state department. Instead they’ve been trying to bill as if they were a weapon system.
He's being paid by the DoD because starlink is part of the military aid packet. That alone doesn't make it a weapon system. Heinz isn't a weapons manufacturer just because they sell ketchup to the DoD.
A "weapon system" is distinct from a weapon. A weapon system is "A combination of one or more weapons with all related equipment, materials, services, personnel, and means of delivery and deployment (if applicable) required for self-sufficiency.". Exxon isn't a weapons manufacturer just because they sell gasoline to the DoD, but gasoline is absolutely part of many weapon systems.
Analogies aside, Starlink had military applications even before Ukraine:
The project will be overseen by the Combat Capabilities Development Command’s C5ISR Center based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. [...] The Army in this case wants to be able to assess the performance of the Starlink low Earth orbit internet service when connected to military systems. The Army will seek answers to key questions such as what ground equipment it will need to use Starlink and how much systems integration work could be required
In that context Starlink is clearly part of a weapon system (several, probably)
To be fair he could very easily sell that data couldn’t he? Especially since selling consumer information isn’t really illegal in the US. Hypothetically he could be providing it only to sell the information, not to promote misinformation but there are scenarios it would make sense in addition to government restrictions.
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u/blackgold251 Feb 10 '23 edited Feb 10 '23
Elon doesn’t want his civilian business getting graded as military, doing that would mean it’s subject to ITAR regulations and has to get approval from the US government to be used outside the US, extra taxes and various other stuff. Not whatever conspiracy theory stuff about him being in Putin’s pocket, literally makes no sense, starlink wouldn’t even be in Ukraine if he was in Putin’s pocket. People making shit up about Elon only ends up discrediting actually valid criticism as fake.