Oct. 23 (UPI) — SpaceX cut Starlink Internet service to thousands of its devices providing access to compounds in Myanmar linked to human trafficking and monetary scams worldwide.
The company said late Tuesday that it terminated more than 2,500 Starlink devices Chinese crime syndicates were using to contact and scam people globally.
“SpaceX continually works to identify violations of our Acceptable Use Policy and applicable law because — as with nearly all consumer electronics and services — the same technology that can provide immense benefits has a risk of misuse,” Lauren Dreyer, Starlink’s vice president of business operations, said in a post on X.
“In Myanmar, for example, SpaceX proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centers,'” she wrote.
The scam centers, which operated largely along the border between Myanmar and Thailand, lure people in with the promise of good jobs before often being taken captive and being forced to defraud people through fake investments and pretend romantic schemes, according to reports.
Myanmar’s military, which in 2021 staged a coup that has kept the country mired in a civil war, announced this week that it shut down a scam operation called KK Park, seizing 30 sets of Starlink Terminals and arresting more than 2,000 people.
The military earlier this year launched an operation to go after the scam centers after other nations, specifically Thailand and China, exerted pressure to ease the situation that has seen people from both countries trafficked and forced to work in the scam parks.
Although the military has moved to shut down some operations, reports suggest that many compounds in Myanmar remain active, with tens of thousands of employees and some protected by militia groups that are aligned with Myanmar’s military.
