A remote tribe in Brazil has become bitterly divided nine months after gaining access to satellite internet via Elon Musk’s Starlink service.
The 2,000-member Marubo tribe, who live along the Ituí River deep in the Amazon rainforest, were connected to the World Wide Web last September after 20 antennas were donated to them by American entrepreneur Allyson Reneau.
Starlink, which works by connecting the antennas to 6,000 low-orbiting satellites, delivers super-fast internet to far-flung corners of the planet and has been billed as a game-changer by Musk.
But the internet is already posing problems for the Marubo, with many youngsters in the tribe now hooked on social media and pornography, much to the alarm of elders.
“When it arrived, everyone was happy,” Tsainama Marubo, 73, told The New York Times. “But now, things have gotten worse.”
“Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet,” she explained. “They’re learning the ways of the white people.”
Initially, the internet was heralded as a positive for the remote tribe who were able to quickly contact authorities for help with emergencies, including potentially deadly snake bites.
“It’s already saved lives,” Enoque Marubo (all Marubo use the same last name), 40, stated.
Members are also able to share educational resources with other Amazonian tribes and connect with friends and family who now live elsewhere.
It has also opened up a world of possibilities for young Marubo, some of whom have been unable to conceptualize what lays beyond their immediate surrounds.
One teen told The Times that she now dreams of traveling of the world, while another says she aspires to become a dentist in São Paulo.
Members are also able to share educational resources with other Amazonian tribes and connect with friends and family who now live elsewhere.
However, Enoque told The Times that the Starlink service has had significant downsides. “It changed the routine so much that it was detrimental,” he stated. “In the village, if you don’t hunt, fish and plant, you don’t eat.”
“Some young people maintain our traditions,” TamaSay Marubo, 42, added. “Others just want to spend the whole afternoon on their phones.”
Tribespeople became so addicted that Marubo leaders have now limited access to the internet for two hours each morning, five hours each evening, and all-day Sunday.
However, another tribesman, Alfredo Marubo, says he still worries about the impacts despite the time limits.
“Everyone is so connected that sometimes they don’t even talk to their own family,” he said, fearing that history and culture, which is passed down orally, could be lost forever.
The Marubo are a chaste tribe who even frown upon kissing in public — but Alfredo is anxious that the internet could upend standards of decorum.
He says many young Marubo men have been sharing porn videos in group chats and he has already observed more “aggressive sexual behavior” in some of them.
“We’re worried young people are going to want to try it,” he said of the kinky sex acts they’ve suddenly been exposed to on screen.
Another father, Kâipa Marubo, said he’s anxious about his children playing violent first-person shooter games.
“I’m worried that they’re suddenly going to want to mimic them,” he stated.
Meanwhile, others say that they’ve fallen victim to internet scams given that they lack digital literacy, while many youngsters are chatting with strangers on social media.
Flora Dutra, a Brazilian activist who works with indigenous tribes, was instrumental in helping connect the Marubo to the Internet.
She believes anxieties about the Internet are inflated and asserts that most tribespeople “wanted and deserved” access to the World Wide Web.
Still, some officials in Brazil have criticized the rollout to the remote communities, saying special cultures and customs could now be lost forever.
“This is called ethnocentrism,” Dutra said of such critiques “The white man thinking they know what’s best.”