That's Bullshit. From the first Starlink batches launched, SpaceX started talking to astronomers and began mitigating the light caused from Starlinks. They did a variety of measures, like dark paint or changing the inclination of the sats. That's been going on for years now. They didn't got forced to do it, cause there is no law or rule that says so. They did it cause they wanted to mitigate the effects willingly, from the beginning.

This is just media misinformation.