SpaceX said it disabled over 2,500 Starlink terminals suspected of being used by scammers in Myanmar. Lauren Dreyer, vice president of Starlink business operations, described the action in an X post last night after reports that Myanmar’s military shut down a major scam operation.
“SpaceX complies with local laws in all 150+ markets where Starlink is licensed to operate,” Dreyer wrote. “SpaceX continually works to identify violations of our Acceptable Use Policy and applicable law… On the rare occasion we identify a violation, we take appropriate action, including working with law enforcement agencies around the world. In Myanmar, for example, SpaceX proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centers.’”
Starlink is not licensed to operate in Myanmar. While Dreyer didn’t say how the terminals were disabled, it’s known that Starlink can disable individual terminals based on their ID numbers or use geofencing to block areas from receiving signals.