There was something unusual about the World Water Forum 2024 event which was held in Denpasar on 18-25 May, namely the presence of Elon Musk. The Tesla boss was picked up by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and received directly by President Joko Widodo. It was not the extraordinary welcome that became the topic of conversation, but rather the presence of Elon who took part in global events, but his activities were not at all related to water issues such as those promoted by WWF. On the sidelines of the WWF event, Elon actually launched his Starlink product in Indonesia.

Starlink is a constellation of satellite internet wholly owned by SpaceX, an American company that provides mobile broadband coverage globally to more than 75 countries. The company, based in Redmond, Washington, began launching Starlink satellites in 2019. By early March 2024, SpaceX will have more than 6,000 small satellites operating en masse in low Earth orbit. Around 12,000 more satellites are planned to be launched in the near future, with a possible expansion to 34,400 in the next phase. SpaceX announced that it will have more than 1 million customers in December 2022, increasing to 2 million in September 2023 and 3 million customers in May 2024.