Musk increases pressure by reducing Starlink price and offering free internet to schools

Businessman Elon Musk increased pressure on the government amid criticism of the Brazilian Judiciary revealed by the “Twitter Files” and decided to reduce the price charged for the internet service offered by Starlink – which he owns – and promised to give access to the network for free in public schools if the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) breaks the contracts they have with the company.

The two initiatives were announced on Monday night (8) and are another step in the billionaire’s offensive against the restrictions imposed by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), on certain Brazilian profiles on the social network last Saturday (6).

The reduction in the price of Starlink’s service, for example, aims to increase the company’s customer base in Brazil by offering a 50% discount for the satellite internet access kit. The promotion flooded network X with ads since Monday night (8), offering a monthly fee of R$184 plus equipment worth R$1,000.

Free internet access for public schools – mainly in the Amazon region, where the connection is more remote – will be offered if the government cancels the contracts they have with Starlink. A survey of the BBC News Brazil shows that 90% of cities in the Legal Amazon states use the company’s service.

The contracts with Starlink were signed during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and comprise around 19,000 schools in rural areas of the country, in addition to monitoring deforestation and illegal fires in the Amazon. There is an expectation that, with Musk’s offensive against the Brazilian Judiciary, the government will reevaluate the business it has with the company.

Also this Tuesday (9), Lula poked Musk during a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto focused precisely on an environmental initiative for the Amazon.

He stated that “there are even billionaires trying to build a rocket, take a trip, to see if they can find some space out there, there isn’t. He’s going to have to learn to live here, he’s going to have to use a lot of the money he has to help preserve what’s here, to improve people’s lives,” he said in reference to the company SpaceX, also owned by Musk, which launched last year an initiative to, in the future, take humans to the planet Mars.