Elon Musk has yet another negative PR hit to add to his long list, as it turns out he’s been tangentially involved in yet another submarine-related disaster.
Starlink, the satellite-based internet provider operated through one of the billionaire’s many companies, SpaceX, had a part to play in the expedition of the currently missing submersible voyage to the sunken Titanic. Oceangate, the organization behind the journey, thanked Starlink for “the internet connection we need to make our #Titanic dive operations a success” in a tweet on June 1.
That came just weeks before the ongoing search and rescue mission for one of the company’s submersibles, though it should be noted that the submersible losing its communications with its base ship has nothing to do with Starlink. The misconception that Starlink is responsible for the sub’s lost communication abilities has fueled the spread of awareness about Oceangate’s affinity for Starlink, but while Starlink provides the internet connection with the outside world for the ship overseeing the sub, it’s not how the sub communicates.
Still, not only does going out of their way to shout out a vastly disliked rich man’s ISP play right into the conversation about the wealth of those paying $250k/seat for this ill-fated underwater journey, but one of the last things Musk should want people thinking about in relation to him is subs.
The last time he was involved in a submarine controversy, it was a bit more direct. In 2018, 12 boys and their soccer coach were rescued after a week of being trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Musk then stuck his evil beak in and started spouting a bunch of crap about one of the two British divers, Vern Unsworth, who helped rescue them.
Because Elon still loves throwing child-level tantrums, the outburst came after Musk’s help was rejected by those undertaking the rescue mission, when he had engineers from some of his companies create a mini submarine to use in the rescue. In response to Unsworth’s assertions that Musk’s sub went unused because its creation in the first place was no more than a publicity stunt, Musk called the diver a “pedo guy.”
In his tweet, he said he would make a video showing that, actually, his sub would work and be sufficient. “We will make one [a video] of the mini-sub/pod going all the way into cave No 5 no problemo. Sorry, pedo guy, you asked for it,” before later tweeting, “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”
As you may expect, the tweet is no longer available to view, and Musk’s claims were baseless. However, a defamation case that arose from Musk calling Unsworth a “pedo,” which Musk ultimately won by claiming it was no more than a bad joke. According to BBC News, the judge said that they should have focused more on evidence and that Unsworth and his team were “unable to prove their case.”
As expected, Musk was smug after the trial, saying that his “faith in humanity is restored”—as though his judgment of humanity holds any weight while he behaves like a petulant tween.
Unsworth was decidedly more dignified and said, “I respect the jury’s decision. I’d just like to say my legal team have been absolutely awesome. I came here for a verdict, unfortunately it’s not gone the way I expected but I respect the jury’s decision and thank them for that.”
Musk has yet to comment on the Titanic sub situation, but I doubt he’ll say much, and even if he does, it probably won’t be anything respectable.
(featured image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
