This is the script of my national radio report yesterday discussing
the newly enacted U.S. drone ban. As always there may have been minor
wording variations from this script as I presented the report live on
air.
- - -
Well, we knew that this was almost certainly coming, and it turns out
to be even worse than we were expecting. The executive summary is that
this seems to be effectively a bipartisan political/technical
gaslighting of a sort that no other Western country's government is
doing. While it claims to be making us safer, it's actually putting us
more at risk, and making us look quite foolish to most of the rest of
the world as well.
So what's happening? There have been several proposed federal drone
bans around for quite some time. Congress on a bipartisan basis a year
ago enacted a law requiring the drone maker whose drones are most used
in the U.S. by far, China-based DJI, to get a federal government
security study to somehow prove the negative that they aren't a
security risk. DJI has been literally begging the government to do
this study, but the government has ignored their pleas. Very
Kafkaesque.
And there's been a Commerce Department ban concept floating around as
well. But the ban that was actually enacted a few days ago is from the
FCC, the Federal Communications Commission. And they've put Chinese
drones like DJI's on the "covered list" which means they're prohibited
from using U.S. airwaves for communications, which of course they do
to operate. But in a surprise move, the FCC also banned all drones and
many drone parts made anywhere outside the U.S., not just China. Since
the U.S. manufactures only a very small percentage of drones in use
here, and those drones are considered by many drone-using
organizations to be overpriced, more limited in features, and
reportedly not as reliable as DJI drones, this creates quite a
dilemma.
Keep in mind that the kinds of organizations, businesses, and
individuals who now depend on DJI drones include law enforcement,
search and rescue, power utilities, construction, farmers -- a very
long important list. And they're understandably very upset about this
situation, because they feel that the federal government is ignoring
their needs.
The FCC statement on the ban is being widely viewed as a kind of
fractured fairy tales distortion of foreign made drones reality. It
offers no evidence of actual security vulnerabilities in the banned
drones -- the government in fact never has shown any, just
speculation. If there were genuine security issues, wouldn't you
expect other Western countries to be taking similar actions? Again,
they haven't done so! The FCC speaks of drones being used to carry
contraband. And yeah, that happens, but that has nothing to do with
whether a drone is made in the U.S. or not.
They lay out a far-fetched sci-fi scenario about secret firmware
updates turning foreign made drones into superspies or fleets of
attack machines. They push this story line even though we all know
there's already massive satellite surveillance conducted by all major
powers. They also seem to ignore the fact that most common drones in
this class have very limited range and battery life -- typically at
most a few miles in half an hour to less than an hour. Nor can most
drones insert their own batteries, extricate themselves from storage
cases or cabinets, and then easily exit the buildings they're in to
carry out evil drone attacks.
This is really all about protectionism. Instead of directly supporting
U.S. firms as many countries do with their own firms, U.S. drone users
get the shaft.
The ban impacts new models of drones going forward, so existing models
can continue to be used and purchased at least currently, though DJI
on their own stopped directly selling their latest models in the U.S.
due to the continuing hassles. For now, those models are being
obtained by U.S. buyers on the so-called gray market from overseas or
other third-parties, usually at SIGNIFICANTLY higher prices than the
rest of the world, and typically without the usual manufacturer
warranty or repair options.
So what happens now? It's all going to end up in the courts, and given
how important these issues are to so many drone users in the U.S. and
to their work, it will be interesting to see if the drone ban will
actually ... continue to fly.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
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Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
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Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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