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roystingtoday at 12:44 AM4 repliesview on HN

It also creates a private internet on which “private enterprise” does not have to abide by the Constitution or any subordinate laws.

Sure, it’s just “fear mongering” now, just like digital ID, digital currency, mass surveillance, and speech police were 30 or so years ago, but what happens when terrestrial cable internet gets too expensive and everyone’s subject to Elon’s space internet?

It’s basically the similar playbook as the cable/copper phone network giving way to the internet and wireless and … whoopsie … you also have a tracking and permanent surveillance device on you with no ability to keep thousands of corporations harvesting your body for data and information.


Replies

asdfftoday at 1:14 AM

This would allow you to throw a flock camera up literally anywhere on earth. If we are being honest, we are probably only a couple years out from real Orwellian mass surveillance states, totally censored and mined communications, and general purpose compute restricted or made illegal I wouldn't even be surprised. All the incentives lead right to that and we are halfway there in many ways already.

kube-systemtoday at 12:57 AM

There are already zero private companies that have to follow the constitution, since it never applied to them, ever.

As another person mentioned, radio crosses international boundaries, but it is regulated by regulating ground equipment and people and organizations on the ground. You'll see some countries on https://starlink.com/map that are greyed out because of regulatory issues... for example, some countries such as India heavily control the use of satellite comms

tarpitttoday at 12:50 AM

Do ISPs have to comply with the 1st ammendment? My understanding was that they have some sort of common carrier law but net neutrality did not hold up.

kortillatoday at 12:47 AM

It doesn’t. The network is governed by the FCC and any other regulatory agency where they place RF on the ground.