Elon Musk’s SpaceX has reacted to a French investigative news report and ensuing probe from the US Congress Joint Economic Committee to disable over 2,500 Starlink devices in Myanmar.
A post on X by Starlink’s Vice President of Business Operations Lauren Dreyer SpaceX confirmed last week her firm disabled thousands of Starlink Kits in the vicinity of Myanmar’s suspected scam centers:
The action was preceded by Agence France-Presse (AFP) investigation earlier this month revealing criminal elements in the Special Administration Zone had installed Starlink receivers on the roofs of scam compounds at a “huge scale.”
prompted the Congress JEC to launch an investigation into Starlink’s alleged role in the centers
The AFP’s report prompted the Congress JEC to launch an investigation into Starlink’s alleged role in the centers known to harbor Chinese Triad-linked crime networks trafficking humans to work their illegal online gambling, romance, and investment scams.
The action comes after a Myanmar military junta reportedly discovered 30 sets of Starlink “receivers and accessories” during a raid on a scam center earlier this month. Worldwide pressure from governments and law enforcement on the global scam center phenomenon is growing, evidenced by a historic US and UK operation mid-October that seized $15bn from a major Cambodia-based cybercrime network.
SpaceX’s Dreyer said her firm’s subsidiary, which manufactures the Starlink kits in Bastrop, Texas, is committed to “ensuring the service remains a force for good and sustains trust worldwide: both connecting the unconnected and detecting and preventing misuse by bad actors.”
