Elon Musk's company's Starlink satellite communication terminals are being sold on the black market around the world, according to a Bloomberg investigation, UNN reports.
Details
"A Bloomberg News investigation identified wide-spanning examples of Starlink kits being traded and activated illegally," the report said.
The publication points out that the way "how they are smuggled and the sheer availability of Starlink on the black market suggests that its misuse is a systemic global problem, raising questions about the company’s control of a system with clear national security dimensions."
In Yemen, which has been going through a decade-long civil war, a government official has acknowledged that Starlink is in widespread use, it said. In Yemen, the newspaper writes, Starlink kits are "openly sold on social networks, bought in countries such as Singapore or Malaysia, and then activated in roaming."
Or, as the publication writes, in Sudan, where a year-long civil war has led to accusations of genocide, crimes against humanity and the fact that millions of people have left their homes. With the regular internet down for months, soldiers of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are among those using the system for their logistics, according to Western diplomats.
In Central Asia, where deals with Starlink are rare, it said, a government crackdown on illicit terminals in Kazakhstan this year "has barely made a dent on its use."
The Starlink kits, the publication said, are being sold for use in Venezuela, where individuals and entities have been subject to US sanctions for nearly a decade, most recently under President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian rule.
In South Africa, the article continues, the government has yet to approve Starlink's bid for the job - "but that hasn't stopped the terminal trade from flourishing there."
In Zimbabwe, authorities threatened raids in response to online advertising of Starlink equipment, the H-Metro newspaper reported in January. According to local tech blog Techzim, prices for Starlink hardware range from $700 to $2,000 on the black market. Government officials in Ghana and Zimbabwe have recently said they hope to allow licensed services.
Then in February of this year, Ukraine said that Russia was deploying Starlink in its own war efforts, while unverified posts on X, Musk’s social network, appeared to show Russian soldiers unpacking kits. Two House Democrats wrote a letter to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell pressing her on Ukraine’s claims. "To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia," Musk wrote on X.
SpaceX should be able to prevent Russian use of Starlink in occupied Ukraine, since "basically every single transmitter can be identified," said Candace Johnson, director at NorthStar Earth & Space Inc.
"It is deeply concerning because it’s unregulated and headed by a private company," Emma Shortis, a senior researcher in international and security affairs at the Australia Institute, an independent think tank in Canberra, said of the Starlink system. "There’s no accountability on who has access to it and how it’s being used."