Brazil sees Elon Musk’s Starlink as a political threat

“We were all rooting for Starlink to come to Brazil…we knew what a big change it would make," said Arthur Cursino, a ginger farmer here who once had to climb a tree to get a cellphone signal and now, thanks to Starlink, runs one of Brazil’s most popular YouTube channels on farming.

But Starlink’s rapid expansion has come as officials in the administration of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have raised concerns about Musk’s growing influence over the country. After getting regulatory approval two years ago, Starlink eclipsed competitors in May to become the country’s biggest satellite internet provider.

Musk, a billionaire whose companies include social-media platform X and electric-car maker Tesla, has courted right-wing leaders around the world, including da Silva’s predecessor and rival, Jair Bolsonaro. Musk threw his support behind the candidacy of former President Donald Trump.

The regions where Starlink has become popular—Brazil’s agricultural heartland and the Amazon rainforest—are Bolsonaro strongholds where da Silva faces deep political opposition.

Now, Brazil’s federal audit court is investigating Starlink’s use by public authorities in the country, threatening to place restrictions on the service. Anatel, the telecoms regulator, has opened a separate inquiry into Starlink, saying that its rapid growth in subscribers of more than 20% a month could crowd out new players.

“The Amazon is one of Brazil’s greatest riches," Lucas Furtado, the public prosecutor leading the audit court probe, said in an interview. “It holds secrets that no one knows…the idea that a company should be in control of this information is an affront to Brazilian sovereignty."

Starlink didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Brazil is the latest country where Musk’s business interests are colliding with his politics. In Argentina, he has praised the new president, Javier Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has refused to meet with da Silva, and expressed interest in the country’s lithium, an essential metal in electric-vehicle batteries that Musk describes as “the new oil." In China, where he is expanding his businesses, he has called China taking over Taiwan an “inevitability."

Since visiting Brazil in May 2022, Musk has openly aligned himself with the country’s conservatives, prompting former President Bolsonaro to herald him a “legend of freedom" at recent political rallies. Bolsonaro’s then-Communications Minister Fábio Faria told Congress he personally fast-tracked Starlink’s regulatory approval.

Musk supported Bolsonaro after Brazilian police opened investigations into the former president and other leading conservatives—many from rural Brazil—for allegedly plotting a failed coup in January 2023 against da Silva’s government.

Then in April, the billionaire refused a Supreme Court order to block accounts on his X platform that authorities say were linked to the uprising. He called the judge who issued the order “a dictator," labeling it an affront to free speech and the “most draconian demands of any country on Earth."

Left-leaning Brazilians were infuriated. “How dare he, an American businessman who has never grown a blade of grass in his life, how dare he criticize our highest court," said da Silva in a recent speech.

Starlink’s meteoric rise in Brazil’s farming belt has only made the government more nervous, said Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at the São Paulo-based consulting firm Tendências.

“The government was already struggling to win over the agricultural sector and now Starlink is promising to improve productivity and bring other positive gains," said Cortez. Greater internet coverage in these largely conservative regions could also foster a stronger political identity, he said, as communication between once isolated farming areas grows.

Here in Tapiraí, most of the town’s 8,000 or so residents have continued to back Bolsonaro, fondly recalling the day in 2020 when the then-president touched down in his helicopter to pay them a visit. The town gave da Silva only 40% of the vote in the 2022 presidential elections, some 11 percentage points below the national result that sealed the leftist’s narrow victory over Bolsonaro.

Brazil is an attractive market for Starlink, which uses satellites developed and shot into space by Musk’s Space X, said Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Analytics, which tracks the space industry. It has about 200,000 subscribers, and the number is expected to grow with the rollout of “Starlink Mini," a smaller version of its satellite internet antenna, said Quilty.

“SpaceX has already picked off the lowest hanging fruit, having conquered Australia, and Brazil is the largest country in the Southern Hemisphere," he said.

Brazil has one of the world’s lowest population densities—67 people per square mile compared with 96 people in the U.S. That means it is often not economically viable to provide internet by other means, such as laying cables or installing more cellphone towers, even in towns such as Tapiraí, a two-hour drive from the megapolis of São Paulo in Brazil’s richest state.

In a sign of the market’s potential, John Deere recently announced it will start installing Starlink on its equipment in Brazil this year, which would make it the only country to do so outside the U.S. This would allow tractors to operate driverless to soon plant, fertilize and harvest crops.

Even the smallest farms can benefit from being online, saving producers from driving hours to pay bills or buying supplies. Officials estimate that better internet access could boost the productivity of farms by as much as 25% in a country that is the world’s top exporter of beef, soybeans and sugar. Though some 74% of rural properties have internet access, less than 25% of farmland is connected, according to government figures.

In the state of Mato Grosso do Sul near the border with Paraguay, where getting online is a struggle, farmers say they would resist any attempt by the government to limit Starlink.

“What other choice do we have?" said José Marques, who produces soybeans and corn as well as raising cattle on his 3,700 acre farm near the town of Caarapó.

Earlier this year, he paid some $1,500 to install Starlink in his truck with the help of a Brazilian company that adapts the antennas so they can be attached to the roof with magnets, allowing users internet access while on the road.

Previously, he said he would remain offline for hours everyday as he drove between his family’s farms. Now, Marques said he can use the time to talk to suppliers and workers, as well as buy and sell cattle over Instagram and WhatsApp.

“Starlink came to help us, to make our lives easier, they can’t take it away now," Marques said.

The government has argued it is doing its part, playing down the importance of Starlink. “Satellite internet is one alternative to increase connectivity in the countryside and we have many companies that are emerging in this field," said da Silva’s Communication Minister Juscelino Filho.

The da Silva administration has also unveiled more financial support for the agriculture industry in recent months, including a $15 billion package of loans to support nearly five million family farms.

“We need people to produce more!" da Silva said in announcing the package.

Cursino, the farmer, called the assistance a big help. “Farmers would be wise to spend that cash on Starlink," he said.

Write to Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com