They say the USSR was defeated not by an arms race but by the fax machine. Could a similar event occur in authoritarian regimes as Starlink bypasses their technology crackdowns?
The Twitterazi may despise Elon Musk for his attempts to bring free speech to the platform, then back out (or negotiate) once their fake numbers were exposed, but Musk is no one-trick pony. Having built rockets that can land themselves, revolutionized space travel, created the entire electric car industry and worked on connecting the human mind with technology, Musk has turned his attention to free discourse. Working on either buying Twitter or exposing its corruption was just one step in the process. Another was moving his satellite-based internet service provider to Ukraine so that the government there couldn’t be cut off from online communications. Now he’s looking at doing the same for Iran:
Starlink will ask for an exemption to Iranian sanctions in this regard
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2022
Even those who loathe the richest man on the planet are taking notice. That includes writers from a perspective wholly different than the “freedom of speech” advocates:
That said, Starlink — for all its limitations competing with wired internet service — is a functional product that’s had some apparent success as an internet service provider of last resort. Musk offered Starlink kits to Ukraine after the Russian invasion earlier this year, and months later, it had garnered praise from Ukrainian defense officials for staying online as fiber cables and cell towers were knocked out. A group of lawmakers has also encouraged the Treasury Department to grant an exemption for Starlink, so he’s got backing if he decides to seek that out.
— Kristen Ratdke, The Verge
Beyond the idea of just providing internet to Iranian dissidents and protesters, there’s a far more important point that could impact the trajectory of the world. Should Elon Musk work to make internet easily accessible all over the planet, he could potentially bypass the government-imposed firewalls and blackouts that prevent their societies from knowing the truth… as best as it can be revealed.
Part of the problem the old Soviet Union faced was that their population eventually got word of what life was like in Western countries. The same thing happened in Cuba as well. It’s the same issue that causes North Korea to make a western DVD or CD punishable by a hand being chopped off or a not-so-quick trip to the prison camp. Those who wish to keep their populations in ignorance are highly threatened by the free flow of information. It’s also why you should shutter and possibly feel indignation when you watch western universities and tech companies advocate privately and publicly for a crackdown of non-official narratives and communications. Free speech is the anti-septic of society. It may come with its own problems, but they’re far less dangerous than the diminishment of free speech.
So if Musk is able to penetrate “dark” nations with the internet, how long until those regions realize that they’re being utterly oppressed? How long until they know what they’re missing out on?
The Iranian people largely already know how much better life is in other parts of the world. But the Chinese population really doesn’t — if you can believe it. Neither do many other societies held under authoritarian control. And though we might not be able to impact their societies with news reports, great entertainment can actually drive people to sneak such content onto their devices and into their homes. It can drive them to connect to Starlink to see what western entertainment really is like and how the rest of the world lives.
Our only danger:
Are we creating the type of content that would free people from dictators? Are we making the type of entertainment that would inspire? Or have we degraded our values such that we’re no longer a shining star that can point the oppressed towards something worth fighting for.
Let’s aim back in that direction.
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