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I want to talk a bit about @elonmusk and the threat he has levied at Apple if they want to truly go to war with him. It's not as simple as "I'm gonna make my own phone and OS and out-compete you in the market"
And I'm going to explain what toes get stomped if he does.
And I'm going to explain what toes get stomped if he does.
After the PATRIOT Act was passed, the NSA enhanced its warrantless surveillance and bulk data collection programs tenfold, with post 9/11 terrorism as a justification.
This is a map of undersea fiber optic cable connections. The physical manifestation of the information highway.
This is a map of undersea fiber optic cable connections. The physical manifestation of the information highway.
We know of at least a couple of facilities where the NSA is running something akin to a "Tap Interface" for that bulk data collection. The facilities where the undersea cables connect to the land based network of cellular/fiber/DSL infrastructure.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
Everything going in or out from these international demarcation points. The NSA is saving copies of much of it as bulk data collection, ostensibly to be looked at with a warrant (lmao) but otherwise untouched. Other nations do this as well. Particularly China.
The reason I bring this up is because this leads to choke points. We also know that Five Eyes nations in particular, have a history of using contractors as middlemen to "accidentally" slip data to each other for exploitation. What does this look like?
An NSA Contractor, lets say Booze Allen, surreptitiously gives data as a result of bulk collection to a friendly nation, lets say New Zealand. They're acting in an espionage capacity and don't need a warrant to look at foreign information. Then as "allies" they share findings.
This very heavily relies on bulk data collection at fiber optic chokepoints. Which Russia has already demonstrated they are capable and willing to sabotage if the need arises. 
There is also a lot of bureaucracy and money involved in the telecommunications industry. Land easements for cell towers, for burying fiber, cell signal spectrum management, etc.
Sure would change the dynamic if a widespread cellular carrier leveraged a LEO 5G sat network..
Sure would change the dynamic if a widespread cellular carrier leveraged a LEO 5G sat network..
Starlink is already rolling out to residential customers in large numbers. But imagine how widespread cellular adoption would alter the calculus of State Actors collecting your information? It would step on the heels of all sorts of intelligence agencies. 
This wouldn't just step on western toes. This could be used to break open all sorts of firewalled regimes. North Korea, China, Iran, Russia. From an infrastructure & intelligence perspective, this can/will be a paradigm changer.
In the same way Twitter was the gem of controlling the narrative through suppression and boosting selectively, the infrastructure collects valuable data that informs would-be "nudgers" on the perception of the masses so that they can distort it.
So lets circle back to Apple, and why they feel so threatened. Why the threat of removing Twitter from the App Store led to Musk threatening the App Store itself.
The ability to drop an app from the story essentially kills it. Very few apps have mass adoption purely from the web
The ability to drop an app from the story essentially kills it. Very few apps have mass adoption purely from the web
This is generally the kiss of death for "normie" adoption of something. This is why they reflexively do this to things like Parler/GETTR/Truth Social, especially at first.
They don't care if a committed minority rallies on 4chan or these bizarre Twitter spin-off apps.
They don't care if a committed minority rallies on 4chan or these bizarre Twitter spin-off apps.
Opposition having free access to the minds of the *masses* and ruining their narrative monopoly is absolutely their worst fear. This is why they put up so much resistance to the Twitter purchase and are figuring out what exactly to do about it, hence Apple flipping out.
If you've wondered why the internet feels "smaller" than it once was and information has consolidated to just a few apps, consider the escalation chain the regime has at its disposal to prevent rival narratives from gaining actual mass appeal: 
Suppressed on social media
Banned on social media
Start own app, dropped from app store and thus mass appeal of mobile users
Thrive on the web, they attack your infrastructure.
Your payment processor, your DNS registrar, your hosting provider. They've done this already to people.
Banned on social media
Start own app, dropped from app store and thus mass appeal of mobile users
Thrive on the web, they attack your infrastructure.
Your payment processor, your DNS registrar, your hosting provider. They've done this already to people.
Starlink is already getting popular use residentially, relieving the overwhelming majority of rural America of their slavery to crappy HughesNet Satellite or metered 5G LTE residential ISP's. This entails access to the "masses" and not just enthusiasts of his.
Becoming a mobile carrier with an open source or at least censorship free OS, particularly if the hardware was sourced in an uncompromised way, would deprive regimes all over the world, including ours, of several valuable methods of information control they've long enjoyed.
Developing a global DNS registrar internally for Starlink would be rather trivial as well, as well as a new revenue stream.
I know @elonmusk is a nerd and uhh, I can imagine a source of inspiration for him. The guy dreams big.
www.sarna.net/wiki/ComStar
I know @elonmusk is a nerd and uhh, I can imagine a source of inspiration for him. The guy dreams big.
www.sarna.net/wiki/ComStar
And if you enjoyed this and would like to look at my other work, I have other threads linked to in my pinned tweet. I also review fiction, much of it written by our guys from our corner of the internet, at bullfrogreview.substack.com
Thank you.
Thank you.
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hodlonaut @hodlonaut1
ยท
Nov 30, 2022
Solid thread, thanks!