This has nothing to do with "China spying on the US" and has everything to do with "US citizens piercing the total information control matrix and questioning the government".
Not sure why you're being downvoted. Even if you ignore the legitimacy of security concerns about foreign drones, this action gives more monopoly control over drones to the US government.
If some US drone manufacturer crosses the administration in some way, say in terms of backdoors or lack thereof, it's one less option for the consumer.
Think chat control in the EU but based on executive order in the US, and drones.
DJI is a global drone company and they're popular in Japan as well for agricultural drones . I recall the head of the American branch Colin Guuin, wanted more share and control of the company and they booted him out and he started his own drone company which is not doing so well
Why can’t they just require government agencies to purchase US-made drones? Why is this a bigger threat than any of the millions of foreign electronics used to communicate in the U.S.?
At least theoretically, there could be code in the China-made drones that allows them to be taken over in the event of a war between China and the US. In practice, this is probably just protectionist.
Because there's a non-trivial element of the current USG (and probably a decent sized portion of American voters) who think we'll be at war with PRC within the next couple years, at some point when the next Taiwan invasion windows open (April and October each year). From that perspective, this is prudent policy. If you don't think this is likely, or don't care about broader historical or geopolitical trends, then yes it's very annoying.
That doesn't explain it, though. In this case and the TikTok case, nobody has been able to cite exactly what all these "personal data" are. Not once have I seen a citation of what TikTok has "stolen" from users, somehow defying data sandboxing implemented on mobile devices.
This fake hysteria over drones is even worse, considering that the drones don't have the means of sending arbitrary data to remote servers.
Department of Interior tried that, but "Interior faces challenges with maintaining a sufficient drone fleet because drones compliant with its policies are more expensive and do not always have sufficient capabilities, among other issues, according to officials."
Wonder when the TrumpDrone "made in america" will be announce. Just like the TrumpPhone, no doubt it'll end up being made in China. The jokes really do write themselves.
Corruption and nepotism does not get much more blatant than this. The president's son is involved in one of the American drone companies that stand to gain the most from this policy. Their investor presentation boasts about regulations as the first bullet point under the title "Our competitive advantage".
That's an optimistic take, a more pessimistic take is that this is a tactic to lock marketshare for Wing, Zipline, Amazon and stall investment in drone delivery services while production catches up.
edit: I'm speculating here that the supply chain wasn't already state-side for these players without knowing much about their business model
I disagree with banning them, and I disagree with the FCC's argument that all drones inherently have a dual purpose as a paramilitary device... but.
Every DJI product I've interacted with has reeked of spyware. Many (all?) of their products brick themselves from the factory until you install an app, create an account, and pair to the device to "activate" it. Both the app installation and PII acquisition are mandatory, regardless of whether they're necessary for correct device function.
Hopefully, this opens the floodgates to a new, more competitive market for drones, where these forms of malpractice don't fly (heh). I'm not optimistic.
Yes also due to a huge increase in regulation. Which makes sense with the capability of some of these things, don't get me wrong. But it's no longer a fun hobby.
And the one I had was more of a toy than a real one with kilometers of range
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 91.0 ms ] threadThanks, Adam!
If some US drone manufacturer crosses the administration in some way, say in terms of backdoors or lack thereof, it's one less option for the consumer.
Think chat control in the EU but based on executive order in the US, and drones.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-adds-dji-other-foreig...
This fake hysteria over drones is even worse, considering that the drones don't have the means of sending arbitrary data to remote servers.
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106924
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-updates-covered-list-add-ce...
Flight controllers? ESCs? Who knows!
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/10/29/donald-t...
[2] https://www.unusualmachines.com/about-us/company-presentatio...
edit: I'm speculating here that the supply chain wasn't already state-side for these players without knowing much about their business model
Forces drone engineering and manufacturing into the US if they want to sell anything to anyone in the US.
Every DJI product I've interacted with has reeked of spyware. Many (all?) of their products brick themselves from the factory until you install an app, create an account, and pair to the device to "activate" it. Both the app installation and PII acquisition are mandatory, regardless of whether they're necessary for correct device function.
Hopefully, this opens the floodgates to a new, more competitive market for drones, where these forms of malpractice don't fly (heh). I'm not optimistic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6chNEaXb-o
I mean, like, I guess I'm just a nerd, but where is the fun in buying a premade expensive quad copter?
And the one I had was more of a toy than a real one with kilometers of range