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What Musk told countries asking him to ban Russian news from Starlink

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4 years ago

on

March 5, 2022

By

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Elon Musk has told off those countries asking him to ban Russian news sources from its satellite internet service in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the American space-preneur to do something to help his country bombarded by Russia.

And Musk, owner of Space X, promptly delivered his Stralink equipment to stabilize the internet service in the war torn country.

But some countries, he tweeted Friday night are asking him to block Russia.

“We will not do so unless at gunpoint,” he said.

“Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.”

Facebook, Google, and other tech platforms have banned most of Russian media from their platform for disseminating what they describe as Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine.

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Vote-buying remains a major concern One of the strongest warnings from Osun was the continued presence of vote-buying and voter inducement. Yiaga Africa said the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were consistent with its independent statistical projections, but cautioned that this did not remove concerns about the integrity of voters' choices amid reports of vote-buying and inducement. The concern is particularly significant ahead of 2027, when political competition will take place nationwide and involve presidential, National Assembly and state-level contests. The International Republican Institute (IRI), following a pre-election assessment mission conducted in August, identified monetised political competition, election-related violence, insecurity and declining public confidence in INEC among the structural challenges facing the 2027 elections. IRI recommended stronger investigation and prosecution of vote-buying and voter inducement, urging INEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and security agencies to act on credible allegations. Technology improves transparency — but has limits The Osun election also demonstrated how electoral technology can improve transparency. INEC's electronic transmission of polling-unit results through the IReV platform provided observers and members of the public with a mechanism to monitor uploaded results. Yiaga Africa subsequently said the official results were consistent with its independent statistical estimates, describing the outcome as evidence that the announced results reflected the ballots counted at polling units. However, technical problems with BVAS were reported during voting. CDD said difficulties involving biometric verification and slow processing occurred in several LGAs, including Irepodun, Ejigbo, Obokun, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ola Oluwa, Ede North and Ede South. 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