It's Time to Take Starlink Away from Elon Musk

Paul Krugman contends that Elon Musk effectively intervened in the Russia-Ukraine war by slowing or cutting Starlink service to Ukraine, a move reported by U.S. officials to have been taken by Musk himself or at least without U.S. foreknowledge. With Ukraine gaining on the battlefield and Russia increasingly targeting civilians and critical infrastructure, reduced access to Starlink could cost thousands of lives, weaken Ukrainian resistance, and embolden Putin and his allies in Europe. Musk’s political sympathies and alignment with figures supportive of Putin make leaving a critical communications network in his hands dangerous.

Krugman argues that private property rights do not extend to actions that undermine national security and that decisions about access to strategic technologies are essentially foreign- and defense-policy choices that belong to democratically accountable institutions. He offers a Lockheed/Taiwan hypothetical and recalls FDR’s wartime seizure of Montgomery Ward as precedent for temporary government control when private actors threaten national objectives. The remedy he urges is to remove effective control of Starlink from Musk - through oversight or temporary government control - not as permanent nationalization but to prevent a single private individual from dictating outcomes in a critical military and humanitarian crisis.