SpaceX says it has shut down thousands of Starlink terminals that were powering Myanmar’s notorious scam compounds after its satellite network was found to be keeping human trafficking and cyber-fraud operations online in the country’s lawless border zones.
In a statement posted on X, SpaceX’s senior vice president of commercial business, Lauren Dreyer, said the company had “proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected scam centers” in Myanmar. She added that SpaceX “complies with local laws in all 150+ markets where Starlink is licensed to operate” and takes “appropriate action” when it detects violations of its acceptable use policy or applicable law.
The move comes just days after Myanmar’s military authorities raided one of the country’s largest online fraud operations, a sprawling compound near the Thai border known as KK Park. Officials reportedly detained more than 2,000 people and seized dozens of Starlink terminals believed to have been used by gangs to maintain internet access in the region, where conventional telecom services are often restricted or monitored.
The KK Park raid marked the latest in a series of crackdowns on human trafficking-linked cybercrime rings operating in special economic zones across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Many of these compounds are believed to be controlled by Chinese-speaking criminal syndicates running online fraud schemes, from crypto investment scams to fake romance and pig-butchering operations, that target victims around the world.
Until recently, these syndicates relied on unstable local networks or smuggled SIM cards to stay online. The arrival of Starlink, with its global satellite coverage and portable hardware, gave them a new way to operate under the radar. According to reports, black market Starlink terminals have been flooding into Southeast Asia via neighboring Thailand and China, often sold at inflated prices and activated using accounts registered elsewhere.
SpaceX’s announcement suggests the company is stepping up enforcement against such misuse. Dreyer admitted that while Starlink has brought “immense benefits” by connecting the unconnected, it also carries “a risk of misuse by bad actors.”
The statement is one of the clearest acknowledgements yet from SpaceX that its low Earth orbit broadband service has been exploited by criminal groups. It also comes amid mounting pressure on the company to tighten oversight as governments struggle to curb transnational cybercrime networks that thrive on the connectivity Starlink enables.
Myanmar’s military has not confirmed whether it coordinated with SpaceX ahead of this week’s takedown, though officials told local media that seized terminals would be investigated and destroyed.
For Musk’s outfit, it’s another reminder that the same satellites bringing Wi-Fi to the world’s dead zones can just as easily beam bandwidth to people who’d rather stay off the radar, or on the wrong side of it. As SpaceX puts it, the goal is to ensure Starlink “remains a force for good” – though in Myanmar’s lawless borderlands, keeping that promise may prove harder than beaming down bandwidth. ®