There are two stories out today which aren't directly related in any way except that maybe one says something about the advisability of the other. The first story is about another win in court for President Trump. You Tube has agreed to pay him nearly $25 million.
YouTube agreed to pay a $24.5 million settlement to President Trump and others who were suspended by the video streaming platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a legal document filed on Monday.
YouTube froze Mr. Trump’s account after the riot, blocking him from uploading new videos and arguing that the content could lead to more violence. Mr. Trump sued YouTube in October 2021, claiming that it and other social media firms that removed his accounts had wrongfully censored him.
The vast majority of YouTube’s settlement payment — $22 million — will go to Mr. Trump, according to the filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He has directed that the money be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall and to the construction of a ballroom at the White House...
Last week, YouTube said it would reinstate content creators who were banned for violating its rules against misinformation related to Covid and the 2020 election. The streaming service also said it would relax some of its content moderation policies, in response to an investigation by Republicanlawmakers into whether social media companies restricted speech at the behest of the Biden administration.
There's really no doubt at this point that the Biden administration was working behind the scenes to silence people on social media. Just last week you had people on the left furious that the FCC pushed affiliates to take Jimmy Kimmel off the airwaves.
But what if you took all of these decisions out of the hands of government by limiting their regulation and control of the infrastructure on which our telecom services operate? That may be starting to happen after Space X recently purchased some wireless bandwidth in a deal with EchoStar.
Elon Musk's SpaceX said Monday it will buy wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar (SATS.O), opens new tab for its Starlink satellite network for about $17 billion, a major deal crucial to expanding Starlink's nascent 5G connectivity business...
The spectrum purchase allows SpaceX to start building and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the company said will expand the cell network's capacity by "more than 100 times."
Why is that a big deal? According to the author of this piece in the Washington Post, it could limit government's control over our cell communications over time. To be clear, the author of this piece is a conservative member of parliament in the UK named Tom Tugendhat who has been a previous critic of Elon Musk. Tugendhat seems to think the idea of Musk controlling the future of cell communications is terrible, a power grab that should worry us. I read it somewhat differently. [emphasis added]
The spectrum Musk bought enables something unprecedented: direct satellite-to-smartphone connectivity without any terrestrial infrastructure. We’re not there yet, but the direction is clear: For the first time, a private company will be able to provide global communications services that bypass national networks, government oversight and geographic boundaries...
More critically, SpaceX now controls enough spectrum to offer commercial-grade mobile services globally — and the company is positioning itself to replace every other mobile operator with a service that operates entirely beyond national jurisdiction.
Since the printing press and the telegraph, governments have controlled communications within their territories — licensing operators, monitoring networks and regulating content through the physical systems that carry information.
This control has enabled everything from wartime censorship to modern content moderation, from emergency broadcasts to surveillance programs.
SpaceX is breaking this model. When citizens can communicate through networks that operate from international space, traditional regulatory tools become obsolete. Britain’s Online Safety Act, for example, requires platforms to remove harmful content and cooperate with regulators. But how do you enforce compliance when platforms can route traffic through orbital networks that bypass British infrastructure entirely?
Britain's Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, is supposed to limit harmful content from making its way to children. But already the law has been used to make demands of companies that exist outside the UK. It's effectively a worldwide regulation of speech.
Does the law really have such global implications? Well, yes. The UK’s Office of Communications, which is enforcing the OSA, has already sent letters to at least three websites operating outside the country, demanding that they conduct harmful speech audits. The letters note that failure to comply could result in “imprisonment for a term of up to two years, or a fine (or both).” (The U.S.-based platform Gab, which hosts Nazi and other extremist content, responded by going offline in the UK.)
Ofcom’s initial enforcement efforts implicate one of the thorniest questions in internet law: How can a country impose its online speech standards beyond its territorial bounds?
“This is one of the first cases in which a national legislature of a major, important country really forced the issue,” said James Grimmelmann, a Cornell Law School professor who specializes in internet law...
If a U.S.-based site does violate the OSA, the act has measures to stymie websites without a presence on English soil. Ofcom has the authority to force third parties, like payment services or app stores, to stop doing business with the sites.
At present, the only option to avoid penalties is to stop operating in the UK. But would the UK be able to stop that same content if it's routed through satellites such that the only point of contact is an individual's phone? How would they even know?
And it sounds like none of Musk's competitors are really in the game yet.
Musk’s timing exploits competitors’ weaknesses. Telecom company Globalstar, Apple’s satellite partner, is just starting its own buildout. AST SpaceMobile, partnered with AT&T and Verizon, is struggling with delays, including a missed deadline for launch of its first satellite at the end of August. AST is using Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company, Blue Origin. (Bezos owns The Post.) Amazon’s Project Kuiper remains years behind, and EchoStar, previously a major competitor, has effectively conceded by selling to SpaceX...
Consider the leverage. Need satellite connectivity for emergency services? SpaceX sets the terms. Want to ensure that your military has secure communications? Better maintain good relations with Musk. Hoping to regulate platform content? Not if the platforms route through Starlink...
This won’t end government, but it will shift the hierarchy of power. Nations without satellites will become what political scientists call “hollow states,” maintaining formal authority over territory and populations while lacking control over the infrastructure those populations depend on.
The idea that Musk might do for global communications what he did for X, i.e. shutting down government control and restoring free speech, doesn't sound so bad to me.
I have a clear memory of watching a long video on YouTube many years ago which argued in great detail that Starlink would not work and could not possibly ever be financially viable. We seem to have come a long way since then. Starlink has an estimated 7 million customers now and once Starship starts launching the next generation of satellites the service should grow quickly. The best lesson to take away from this may be this one: Never bet against Elon Musk.
Editor’s Note: Here at [Insert Site], we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.
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