Jakarta, domclub Indonesia
—
A post that mentions fees for using satellite internet services
Starlink
for flood victims in the Langsa area, Aceh
viral
on social media.What are the facts?
This issue started with an upload by a netizen with the account @nar***a who uploaded a screenshot of a chat with his relatives.The chat touched on the issue of charging IDR 20 thousand for using the Starlink internet in Langsa which was considered extortion.
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
This account then mentioned the account of Starlink owner Elon Musk in its upload to report this.This upload triggered a strong response from the public who opposed levies in the midst of a disaster, one of which was from the account @wor**ic.
“Please, those who have a thug mentality like this, condition it first, guys. When times are difficult & critical, they will still be charged,” he said on X, Tuesday (2/12).
The @ik***T account said something similar, which said this kind of behavior was mental poverty.
“It’s really difficult if you’re mentally poor. People who suffer misfortunes are still the ones who resort to extortion,” he said.
However, the @nar***a account in its latest upload provided clarification regarding the levy which apparently did not take advantage of Starlink assistance from the government.
“So the previous 10k case was rented out because Starlink donations were late coming in. So the price was set because we bought the hardware ourselves. That’s 10k per cellphone. This Warkop is privately owned, not the government,” he wrote in a screenshot.
The Starlink device is one of the assistance from the government to restore connectivity in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.
Starlink also provides its services for free.Elon Musk called this a standard service from the company.
“SpaceX’s standard policy is to make Starlink free whenever a natural disaster occurs somewhere in the world,” said Elon Musk at X, Saturday (29/11).
“It is not right to profit from disaster,” he emphasized.
This statement was also made after Starlink announced free service to all customers, both new and old, until the end of December 2025.
“For those affected by severe flooding in Indonesia, Starlink provides free services for new and old customers until the end of December,” wrote Starlink on their social media, Friday (28/11).
“We are also working with the Indonesian government to immediately build a terminal and restore connectivity to the worst affected areas in Sumatra.”
domclubIndonesia.com
has contacted Minister of Communication and Technology Meutya Hafid, Director General of Public Communications and Media Fifi Aleyda Yahya, and Director General of Digital Infrastructure Wayan Toni Supriyanto to ask for a response regarding this tariff collection issue.However, until this news was written no answer had been given.
(lom/dmi)
[Gambas:domclub Video]
