(Credit: AdrianHancu via Getty Images)
The protests against Elon Musk and Tesla are trickling down to professional Starlink equipment installers, who face online criticism and even tense, in-person confrontations.
The issue is particularly pronounced in Canada, which is locked in a growing trade war with President Trump that has sparked calls to boycott US products. "Since Trump and Elon started doing everything, like tariffs and mass firings, lots of Canadians aren't happy," says Nick Lavoie of Northern Internet Solutions, which installs Starlink dishes on roofs and buildings.
(Credit: Nick Lavoie)Professional installers of Starlink are mostly independent companies with experience in fitting satellite dishes on homes. Still, Lavoie’s business has been hit with a torrent of criticism—all because he installs Starlink, a service from SpaceX, where Musk serves as CEO. After Musk gave a Nazi-like salute during a Trump inauguration event in January, Lavoie even faced accusations that he supports Nazis.
"The last three to four weeks, we've had to delete our [online] ad campaigns due to the endless hate messages, mostly in comments, directed at us making statements that we work for Nazis or we are Nazis ourselves,” Lavoie tells us.
"Just wish Canadians wouldn't treat each other this way," he adds. "It's not who we as Canadians are."
Lavoie also told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the anti-Musk sentiment has led to a decrease in Starlink installation orders, even though his business has no official affiliation with SpaceX. "We've gone from, you know, doing five to 10 installs a week to one a month.”
Alexey Pankratev, who runs another installation service at Ontario Starlink, has also encountered similar anti-Musk messages on his business's Facebook page. "I think, yes, my sales are down. No in-person harassment yet," he tells PCMag.
(Credit: Ontario Starlink Facebook page)"Some people have told me that 'We would love to have this internet, but we don't want to pay this guy [Elon Musk]," Pankratev adds. "I've had a couple of people want to remove [Starlink] because they don't want to pay him."
Meanwhile, Gord Fry, who runs Muskoka Starlink, says he’s faced verbal threats in person from the anti-Musk crowd. “There have been a few face-to-face confrontations and negative responses to my company name,” Fry says.
The anti-Musk backlash reached a high point last month when Ontario Premier Doug Ford killed a $100 million CAD contract with Starlink to retaliate against Trump imposing a 25% tariff on Canadian goods. The cancellation was a blow to independent subcontractors who were recruited to help Ontario install the Starlink dishes in remote areas as part of the contract. That includes Mark Baker, who says a strong anti-US sentiment has taken hold within Canada, and undermined Starlink sales, even though the product itself has been great.
"January, February, our winter quarter was terrible [for sales],” says Baker, who runs the installation business 1-833-STR-LINK, although orders have been improving in recent weeks.
The anti-US sentiment is bound to continue as Trump continues to float the idea of claiming Canada as the 51st US state. Baker himself said he can appreciate Canadians or Americans wanting to be patriotic. But while some cheer on a boycott of Musk and Starlink, the simmering trade war threatens to prevent users from receiving badly needed high-speed broadband, he says. Ontario's Starlink contract was designed to deliver satellite internet to 15,000 underserved homes and businesses in the province, where cold weather and rocky terrain are common.
"Whether the Canadians one up the US in the tariff war, it doesn't matter. We are still having underserved clients in northern Ontario, central Ontario, in a lot of parts of Ontario that could get good internet, but don't," he says.
It's why professional installers don’t think it's wise for Canada to quit Starlink. The satellite internet service has long stood out for its ability to deliver high speeds and low latency better than the competition. Starlink can also reach users in rural and remote areas, where optical fiber can't be easily installed.
“It's too bad because everyone who is canceling Starlink is just shooting themselves in the foot and getting different providers, but nobody here can compare anywhere near what Starlink offers in terms of speed and access anywhere,” says Lavoie, who pulled back his ad spending for Starlink to promote other installation services.
"We don't have a Canadian company that can offer what Starlink can,” he adds. “What can people do? Literally ditch Starlink and go backwards getting service they know won't even compare to this one. It's not feasible.”
(Credit: Muskoka Starlink page)Still, the backlash isn’t necessarily stopping Starlink adoption in Canada. Pankratev told PCMag that even though his sales have been down, "Overall, I have more people installing than removing." The Quebec government has even awarded a contract to use Starlink at remote courthouses, saying there is currently "no satisfactory alternative equivalent."
Fry adds that orders for his Starlink installations have actually increased, even though his business's Facebook ads have been bombarded with criticism.
“The negative reaction to Starlink and Musk was initially frightening. However, the [Facebook] algorithm sees responses as hits, whether they are positive or negative,” he says. “Not only are the negative responders seeing the ads but so too are those folks that are interested in Starlink. My ads have never been so effective as they have been over the last six to eight weeks.”