Is Russia using Starlink?
Europe now wants its own "Starlink". Meta and TikTok sue the EU. Data centers and climate tech.
Digital Conflicts is a bi-weekly briefing on the intersections of digital culture, AI, cybersecurity, digital rights, data privacy, and tech policy with a European focus.
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N.3 - February 20, 2024
Authors: Carola Frediani and Andrea Daniele Signorelli
Index:
- Is Russia using Starlink?
- Meta and TikTok sue the EU
- Data centers and climate tech
WAR IN UKRAINE
What we know about the use of Starlink by the Russians
The Ukrainian military intelligence unit GUR asserts that Russian units operating in eastern Ukraine (Donetsk) are using SpaceX’s satellite communication system Starlink despite SpaceX immediately denying the allegation.
"There are cases of Russian occupants using these devices. This is starting to become systemic", said Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, to RBC-Ukraine.
In a recording, two men speaking Russian can be heard discussing how to obtain Starlink. "Arabs bring everything to us: wires, Wi-Fi, router…", says one of them, who according to Ukrainian intelligence belongs to Russian troops. WSJ reports the men saying that the devices cost 200,000 Russian rubles each (approximately $2,200).
"GUR made its claim following multiple reports in recent days that Russian forces are using Starlink devices", writes the Financial Times.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Starlink had never been sold directly or indirectly to Russia. President Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said that Starlink "cannot be officially delivered here and is not officially delivered". SpaceX also denied that its terminals could have been purchased in Dubai (and then delivered to the Russians through intermediaries), as it does not ship to that area.
The accusations by Ukrainian intelligence are specific, referring to the 83rd Russian Assault Brigade near Klishchiivka and Andriivka in the Donetsk region. There are also some posts circulating on social media showing a video of Russian volunteers in the region with Starlink terminals.
Some commentators, including Bellingcat's director Eliot Higgins, emphasized that Musk and SpaceX's denials of Starlink's use in Russia were not denials of its use in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. Dimko Zhluktenko, a Ukrainian software engineer who runs an organization that collects supplies for the military and has delivered many Starlink terminals in the past, said in a lengthy thread on X that there was plenty of evidence that the Russians were using Starlink on the front lines. This has happened in the past because terminals could fall into enemy hands, but "this has always been resolved swiftly by bricking the terminal via SpaceX support, and Russians were not able to take advantage of it".
However, the massive use of Starlink is something new (and less manageable), Zhluktenko argues. Terminals can be purchased in any country ("e.g. we get ours in Germany as it was the cheapest") and then transported to the front line. The Russian armed forces not only have to buy Starlink equipment, they also have to activate the service.
In general, pinpointing the exact location of Starlink terminal use along the front line is complex. "If Russia is using them very close to frontlines it may be difficult or even impossible to triangulate specific terminals and differentiate between Russian and Ukrainian users," said James Marques, a defense analyst at GlobalData, who believes Russia would use front companies and intermediaries to purchase and transport these products through hard-to-monitor locations in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
"Starlink uses geofencing to limit where the terminal should work," Zhluktenko explains on Twitter. This means that SpaceX limits the availability of the service to specific areas, which do not include Russia and the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. "At the moment, the limit is the front line and about 15 km into the occupied territories. Every time a Starlink terminal is started, it has to learn the exact coordinates in order to connect to the satellite”.
But introducing or reintroducing so-called 'geofencing' to stop Starlink use by Russia on the front line “could also affect the Ukrainian military's devices, given the proximity of the two sides' positions”, the FT noted.
"I have evidence from my military friends that in some areas of the frontline where Russians use Starlink, internet speed went down enormously", says Zhluktenko, stating that this also has repercussions on Ukrainian military personnel. "The bandwidth is being distributed among the terminals on the ground, bringing both Ukrainian and Russian terminals to 1Mbps. This makes Starlink only usable for exchanging text messages, not 4K streaming from UAV. Potentially one less advantage for Ukraine".
If this is the case, why have the Russians only now started using Starlink? Zhluktenko's theory is that they have a better understanding of how to exploit geofencing: "Russians only now figured out how geofencing works and bought some Starlinks in Poland to test, then got them through Belarus to the frontline. It worked, so they started mass-buying it”.
The role of Starlink in the war in Ukraine has been emphasized many times by various parties, commentators, analysts and Ukrainian leaders themselves. Starlink is used to facilitate critical military communications. For example, it is used by reconnaissance teams sending drones over Russian positions and transmitting live video to artillery commanders, or communicating via encrypted chat to direct artillery fire, as the WSJ reported in June.
According to Zhluktenko, "Starlink is a great product for Ukrainian Forces as it gives us a tactical advantage over Russian forces. Combined with UAVs, Starlink makes the battlefield as transparent as it could be. Ukrainians literally see the whole frontline live in 4K in the command center. This enables Ukrainians to make well-informed decisions and prevents Russians from launching surprise attacks".
The EU wants to set up its Starlink
Starlink's important role in Ukraine has also sounded an alarm in Europe. "With the war, Ukraine needed satellite telecommunications, but the EU didn’t have something to offer", Christophe Grudler, a member of the European Parliament who heads the bloc's secure connectivity program, told Politico. "Ukraine should not have to rely on the whims of Elon Musk to defend its people".
The invasion of Ukraine and the Russian attack in the early days of the war on Viasat's KA-SAT satellite network, used by the Ukrainian military, has prompted the EU to speed up its own rival system, IRIS². Thierry Breton, the EU's Internal Market Commissioner and architect of the plan, said a few days ago, during a conference of space industry executives and politicians, that the goal is to sign "the biggest space contract in the history of the EU", worth billions, by Easter.
Starlink also used in the war in Sudan
The military relevance of Starlink has been highlighted in another context in recent weeks. Its service is also being used in Sudan by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which have been fighting the regular Sudanese army for months – to circumvent a national blackout. The devices have multiplied since Sudan's internet was cut off and have been imported through corridors controlled by the RSF through neighbouring Chad and South Sudan, writes Bloomberg.
Ukraine speeds up drone production
Ukraine's Minister for Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, has said that Ukraine will produce thousands of long-range drones capable of striking deep into Russia by 2024, and already has about 10 companies producing drones capable of reaching Moscow and St Petersburg. (Reuters)
PROPAGANDA WAR
Russian and Chinese networks of fake news outlets
A French agency that gathers military and cybersecurity experts claims to have identified an online network based in Moscow that spreads propaganda and misinformation in Western Europe. The network, dubbed "Portal Kombat", would include at least 193 sites spreading pro-Russian propaganda in defense of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and criticizing the government in Kiev (The Guardian). The Citizen Lab research laboratory has instead published a report on Chinese websites posing as local news outlets to target global audiences with pro-Beijing content.
AI AND HUMAN LABOR
If someone accuses you of using ChatGPT
"Imagine my surprise when I received reviews on a submitted paper declaring that it was the work of ChatGPT. One reviewer wrote that it was 'obviously ChatGPT', and the handling editor vaguely agreed, saying that they found 'the writing style unusual'. Surprise was just one emotion I experienced; I also felt shock, dismay and a flood of confusion and alarm. Given how much work I put into writing, it was a blow to be accused of being a chatbot — especially without any evidence”.
A journal reviewer accused a professor, Lizzie Wolkovich, of using ChatGPT to write a scientific article. How do you prove you haven't used AI? The researcher tells her story on Nature (spoiler: it's difficult).
SPYWARE IN POLAND
List of Pegasus victims is very long, says PM
Poland's new Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he has documents proving that authorities under the previous government, led by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, illegally used the Pegasus spyware to target a "very long" list of victims, reports AP.
EU, DSA AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Meta and TikTok sue the EU
Two social media giants such as Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok have sued the European Union. As Politico reports, the dispute is over the economic levy that the EU plans to charge social media giants to fund its work in monitoring content moderation. According to Meta, this system (required by the Digital Services Act) is unfair because it forces some companies to pay a disproportionate amount, while others would pay nothing. In total, the European Union aims to raise €45 million from different companies in 2024, of which €11 million would come from Meta alone (according to Meta). The breakdown of costs between the various companies has not been made public.
IN BRIEF
The environmental impact of data centers
The number of data centers in Ireland continues to grow, with 82 in operation and another 40 slated to be built. The impact of data centers on Ireland’s energy consumption is huge and because of them, according to the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, the country is set to miss its 2030 carbon reduction targets by over 20 percent.
French climate tech is experiencing a boom
Together with public bank Bpifrance, the French government has poured billions into the national tech ecosystem to support climate tech, from small nuclear reactors to hydrogen to mobility - with a soft spot for capital-intensive industrial startups building big factories.
How the EU can become a leader in the data economy
This paper (Ensuring European leadership in the data economy) highlights ten priorities and makes 28 policy recommendations on the next steps for the European data strategy to ensure leadership in the fair data economy. These recommendations support the vision of a genuine single market for data and continued efforts to build on what has already been achieved in recent years.
AI PAPER
Leak, Cheat, Repeat: Data Contamination and Evaluation Malpractices in Closed-Source LLMs - Arxiv