Posted by moonka 1 day ago
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adds-routers-produced-forei...
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-278A1.pdf
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74787w149zo
https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/fcc-bans-foreign-made-rou...
https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/03/24/fcc-just-banned-the-imp...
Personally, I don't make the distinction between foreign and domestically produced routers in America. In fact, I trust foreign produced routers more because the likelihood that they can act upon their surveillance is significantly lower than the current American regime's oppressive and malicious tactics. Therefore, open source routers provides enough transparency to effectively eliminate spyware threats from all angles while being compliant.
I'm especially excited about the Banana Pi because of the transparency and potential of modular upgrades. Whenever there's a network issue, I have to consider whether the manufacturer (American or not) is doing something nefarious. With a Pi based router, I have much more peace of mind with network debugging issues.
The only thing I'm missing right now that would be a nice to have is a wifi card so I can ditch my access point. My hardware isn't open source by any means, but my reliance on non-free networking code is minimal.
Thanks to whistleblowers like Mark Klein and Ed Snowden we know that we're all being monitored by the government. If there are "lists" at all at this point it's the few people that aren't being watched 24/7.
Besides BananaPi, there are e.g. ODROID (Hardkernel from South Korea), FriendlyElec, Radxa.
This is for newly released models that still need to get FCC certification.
Combine that with a general inability to understand or empathize with what's going on outside what they can directly see. How many Trump supporters have we seen who loved him cracking down on illegal immigrants until the crackdown came for someone they cared about, then suddenly it was an outrage (but only an outrage in that specific case)? How many have cheered tariffs until they had to pay a bunch more money for something? How many said "no more wars!" and thought it was great how Trump didn't invade anyone in his first term, and now are saying that attacking Iran is great because they've been an existential threat for half a century? This will be the same way. It'll be, yeah, stick it to those foreign bastards. America First! Then in a few months or years, "The store doesn't have any routers, what the hell?"
Bloomberg Editorial Board: The US Must Not Become a Nation of Emigrants - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-03-20/immigr... | https://archive.today/a9DbM - March 20th, 2026
> A recent analysis found that US emigration has reached unprecedented levels. Much of this exodus is due to the administration’s deportation efforts, but by no means all. Last year, at least 180,000 American citizens left the Land of Opportunity to find a better life elsewhere.
> During the recession of 2008, a Gallup poll found that about 1 in 10 Americans wanted to permanently leave the country. That figure is now 1 in 5. Among women ages 15 to 44, it’s a whopping 40%. Some of that sentiment is tied to politics, of course, but the emigration trend predates the current administration.
> This law requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue rules stating that it will no longer review or approve any authorization application for equipment that poses an unacceptable risk to national security.
The Secure Equipment Act itself was passed in 2021, but the law itself doesn't proscribe any particular equipment or manufacturers. Instead, tells the FCC to create a list and delegates listing duties to various parts of the executive branch (national security agencies, Commerce, the Federal Acquisition Security Council). That's what changed yesterday and it was in fact done by the current administration.
Because it provides a pathway to full government control of the internet.
Content that demonizes the current administration's enemies will become easier to find. Evidence of their crimes will vanish.
When they murder someone in the street, fewer people will find out about it, and those that do will be more likely to hear the government's side of the story.
Mobile networks are already owned by the billionaires, and they've shown plenty of willingness to shape traffic for their interests.
Managing this kind of information at scale is an incredible challenge, but one that LLMs are very well suited for.
Even if you are confident the current administration doesn't have the competence or longevity to exploit this (as I mostly am,) we can easily predict future admins of either party will happily make use of these capabilities.
Bad for the US, but also very bad for the world, because it will make it much easier to manufacture consent for or hide future international crimes committed by the government.
We've excused the complete loss of traditional journalism with a reliance on the Internet instead. Not anymore.
Can savvy individuals work around it, of course. But the general public will treat them like conspiracy theorists, because all they will see is content that reinforces the administration.
The technical discussions in here sound like: "silly Caligula, his horse won't be able to sign his name to cast a vote in the Senate."
Really, do they have a definition?
Yeah conceivably you could use this to ban any network device that is capable of routing between interfaces, so lots of switches with new firmware could do it, often terribly, as well as PCs with multiple interfaces. But its probably going to involve intention.
For example, my router/firewall, which also implements various other network services, e.g. hosting my own e-mail server, is an old Intel NUC with 5 Ethernet ports, 4 of which are made with USB Ethernet interfaces.
...which in turn refers to https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2024/NIST.IR.8425A.pdf
If Apple can make a Neo laptop out of phone parts, they could make a US Airport router out of US mini PC parts.
(edit: and RAM!)
(edit: and NOT multiple video outputs!!)
(edit: but it's not considered a consumer grade router, that's for sure!)