(Photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images)
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In a rare move, SpaceX has bricked over 2,500 Starlink dishes that fraudsters in Southeast Asia were using to conduct online scams.
Myanmar is home to large, remote compounds where people are forced to execute scams through texts, apps, or websites, often with promises of cryptocurrency gains.
To get online, the fraudsters have been subscribing to Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet system, which excels at delivering high-speed broadband to rural and remote areas. For months, human rights groups, journalists, and even US lawmakers have raised concerns about the Starlink use at these scam compounds, some of which use slave labor.
SpaceX has not addressed the scam activities in Myanmar, which is currently embroiled in a civil war. However, on Tuesday, Lauren Dreyer, VP of Starlink business operations, finally addressed the issue in a tweet that said the company "continually works to identify violations of our Acceptable Use Policy and applicable law.
"On the rare occasion we identify a violation, we take appropriate action, including working with law enforcement agencies around the world," she added. "In Myanmar, for example, SpaceX proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected 'scam centers.'"
Dreyer didn’t mention how many scam compounds in Myanmar are using Starlink dishes. But her tweet comes after the Myanmar military raided a notorious scam compound in the country called “KK Park,” which was found to be using close to 3,000 Starlink dishes.
However, state media in Myanmar report that the military seized only 30 Starlink dishes while detaining 2,198 individuals as part of the raid. Other experts allege the raid was staged to convince the international community that Myanmar is trying to stop the scam activities.
Erin West, a former California deputy district attorney who's been urging countries and companies to crack down, also noted: “KK Park is just ONE of the dozens of compounds in Myanmar and the hundreds around the world.” Still, she noted growing action from the US to crack down, which has also involved charging a local tycoon in Cambodia and seizing $15 billion in bitcoin.
SpaceX hasn’t said why it doesn’t simply block all Starlink access from Myanmar; Starlink has yet to officially arrive in the country and several other Southeast Asian countries. However, the company likely wants to avoid disabling Starlink dishes used by locals who are desperate for high-speed internet access.
In her post, Dreyer noted: “We are 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.”
Dreyer also said that the company “complies with local laws in all 150+ markets.” But the scammers have still been gaining access, likely by subscribing to the Starlink Roam plan, which allows customers to access the satellite internet service for up to two months in a foreign country.