'Musk turns off satellite supporting Ukraine' controversy... Electric writer clarifies "narrative error"

CNN Reports Part of Musk Biography
Author and Musk Directly Respond and Refute Amid Controversy

Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Elon Musk, clarified that there was an error in the biography stating that "Musk temporarily disabled Starlink satellite internet in the Ukraine war zone."

Earlier, US media CNN obtained an excerpt from Isaacson's biography of Musk, titled Elon Musk, before its release on the 7th, and reported on the related content. According to the report, the biography mentioned that Musk instructed SpaceX engineers to turn off the satellite communication network near the coast of the Crimean Peninsula to prevent Ukraine's drone submarine surprise attack on the Russian naval fleet last year. SpaceX is the space exploration company led by Musk.

The published book also states, "He (Musk) concluded that allowing the use of Starlink for the attack could be a disaster for the world. So he told the engineers to turn off coverage within 100 km of the Crimean coast."

However, controversy arose over Musk's excessive involvement in the war, and Ukrainian government officials also posted criticisms of Musk on social networking services (SNS).

As the controversy grew, Isaacson posted on 'X' (formerly Twitter), "To clarify the Starlink issue, Ukraine thought coverage was possible up to Crimea, but in reality, it was not."

He added, "They (Ukraine) requested Musk to enable coverage for the drone submarine attack on the Russian fleet, but Musk did not enable it because he thought a major war would break out."

Musk also explained through his X account, "There is a difference between refusing to act on Ukraine's request and deliberately altering Starlink to hinder Ukraine," and "Neither I nor anyone at SpaceX ever promised communication service for Crimea."

In other words, Musk did not intervene to turn off Starlink in the area at that time; it was already inactive. When Ukraine requested to activate Starlink for their operation, Musk did not enable it further due to concerns about retaliation.

However, despite Musk's explanation, the controversy has not subsided. Elizabeth Warren, a US Senate Armed Services Committee member, stated that "Congress needs to investigate what happened at the time and whether there is an appropriate system to ensure that foreign policy is conducted by the government, not by a billionaire."

Meanwhile, Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Musk's biography, announced plans to revise the content in future editions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.