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A comment on Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its space laser network. Parent comment

Re:Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its s... by pphysch on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @01:08PM (#32840091)
You think the USG that funded SpaceX/Starlink isn't going to have control over it...?

While Starlink was marketed as a boon to rural democratic internet access, those promises have been walked back and its pretty clear that it the limited bandwidth is primarily intended to increase the Pentagon/ICs communications capabilities in the field, much like the Internet itself.

The USG did not fund a swarm of satellites so that American (nor Russian, nor Chinese) farmers can watch Netflix.

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Re:Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its s... by wmf on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @01:15PM (#32840194)
Why wouldn't the Pentagon want to blanket China with US propaganda?
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Re:Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its s... by pphysch on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @01:19PM (#32840257)
Sure, but how do you propose to "blanket" China with Starlink modems?
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Re:Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its s... by wmf on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @01:32PM (#32840460)
I'm sure there are plenty of ingenious smugglers in China.
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Re:Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its s... by MichaelCollins on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @01:44PM (#32840618)
You could, but what difference would it make? You'd only be able to get them to relatively few people, and the "Great Firewall" is already porous enough to let those with sufficient motivation slip through. China doesn't care about that; so long as their firewall still works for most people then it still works for population control.
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Re:Starlink is now on all seven continents, enabled by its s... by ceejayoz on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @02:13PM (#32840992)
Most of the things they smuggle probably aren't intended to go on your roof where all the neighbors can see, though.
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