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Walter Isaacson, author of the new Elon Musk biography, has walked back his explosive claim that Musk ordered Starlink engineers to cut off internet connectivity to thwart a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s naval fleet last year.
The claim — which first emerged last week ahead of the biography’s publication — originally stated that in March 2022 Musk told his engineers to turn off Starlink’s connectivity along the Crimean coast (Musk had allowed Ukraine to use Starlink — which is operated by his company SpaceX — for satellite internet after Russia invaded a few months prior).
The book stated that Ukrainian drone subs rigged to blow up the Russian ships “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly” after Musk made the call. Isaacson wrote that Musk’s decision was borne out of a fear that the attack would lead Russia to retaliate with nuclear weapons.
The excerpt raised major concerns about the extent to which Musk may have been using Starlink to meddle in the war, but Musk also quickly pushed back on Isaacson’s characterization of the event. On Twitter, he claimed that Starlink was never activated over Crimea.
He also claimed: “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol. The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
In response, Isacson also offered a correction on how his book portrayed the incident. He wrote, “The Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.”
He later posted, “Based on my conversations with Musk, I mistakenly thought the policy to not allow Starlink to be used for an attack on Crimea had been first decided on the night of the Ukrainian attempted sneak attack that night. He now says that the policy had been implemented earlier, but the Ukrainians did not know it, and that night he simply reaffirmed the policy.”
According to CNN, Simon & Schuster, publisher of Isaacson’s new book, said “future editions” of the biography “will be updated” to reflect the actual events.
Isaacson’s book does describe how conflicted Musk was that his company’s technology was being used to launch attacks. “How am I in this war?” Musk told Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker reported last month on Musk’s unease over Starlink’s role in the war, as well as the U.S. government’s efforts to manage the whims of the eccentric billionaire. Farrow spoke to a Ukrainian soldier, who recounted another instance in which an offensive was stymied because of lost connectivity. “We were very close to the front line,” the soldier said. “We crossed this border and the Starlink stopped working.” He added: “Communications became dead, units were isolated. When you’re on offense, especially for commanders, you need a constant stream of information from battalions. Commanders had to drive to the battlefield to be in radio range, risking themselves. It was chaos.”
Farrow also wrote about how Musk has appeared to express support for Vladimir Putin, reporting that he told U.S. officials that he spoke with the Russian president personally.
It’s unclear what exactly was informing Musk’s approach, but it’s become apparent since he took over Twitter (now X) that he’s been listening to the advice of an array of right-wing influencers. One such influencer with whom Musk regularly interacts, Ian Miles Cheong, is a contributor to the Russian propaganda network RT. Last October, Cheong advised Musk to take Starlink offline along the front lines.
“Might be a good idea to take Starlink offline for the terminals used on the frontlines,” Cheong wrote in response to Musk wondering what he could do to de-escalate the conflict. “Could encourage them to reconsider their position on advancing towards Crimea and leading the world further into the brink of total war.”
This story was updated 9/12/23 at 4:10 p.m. ET after Walter Isaacson walked back his claims about Musk deactivating Starlink for Ukrainian troops ahead of a thwarted attack on a Russian naval fleet.
