I was looking for confirmation that Starlink, Elon Musk’s app, was the most downloaded app right now in Ukraine. Starlink is one of Elon Musk’s lesser-known but most interesting projects: it aims to create a constellation of thousands of small satellites to bring the Internet where it doesn’t reach. At the beginning of the conflict, the young Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov had reached out to Musk via Twitter asking him to help him keep the Internet running during the war. It may seem irrelevant at a time when thousands of people lack electricity, water and food and have lost their homes. But it isn’t.
Two Wikipedia
by Riccardo Luna
The Internet is a bridge with the rest of the world: it serves to organize fundraising, aid, spread news, feel less alone. This is demonstrated by the ranking of the most downloaded apps at the moment in Ukraine: on the podium is Obimy, a messaging service that serves to fight loneliness and stay in touch with loved ones without the need for words, photos or videos. Only emoticons. The tool is called “senseger”, a “messenger of feelings” and a team of young Ukrainian computer scientists had developed it before the invasion. If Obimy works, however, if the apps work, it is because despite the ongoing destruction, the Internet in Ukraine continues to work.
The war seen on Yandex, the Google of the Russians
by Riccardo Luna
In fact, Musk, via Poland, has repeatedly sent (the last load on 18 March) thousands of terminals capable of connecting to its satellites. In short, Starlink is really the most downloaded app, followed by the one that notifies airplane alarms and one for reading books online. Reading books on your mobile phone while they bombard you: life sometimes gives us poignant images.