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...
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.
> For the purpose of this determination, the term “Routers” is defined by National Institute of Science and Technology’s Internal Report 8425A to include consumer-grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer. Routers forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between networked systems. ¹
> A “consumer-grade router” is a router intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer. Routers forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between networked systems. Throughout this document, the term “router” is used as a shorthand for “consumer-grade router.” ²
There doesn't seem to be a general ban for foreign-made professional routers, just for some Chinese manufacturers, right³?
Oh, and what does "produced by foreign countries" even mean? I couldn't find any definition. Is this meant to be the country of final assembly? Would importing a Chinese router and the flashing the firmware in the USA be sufficient to be exempt? Where is the line drawn usually?
¹) https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/NSD-Routers0326.pdf
²) https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2024/NIST.IR.8425A.pdf
Is this just another mass surveillance operation?
But largely thanks to FCC demands, the list of router hardware that can run open source operating systems such as OpenWRT has dwindled to a trickle. There's very precious few wifi 7 / BE systems available, and only a few wifi 6! it's ghastly. https://toh.openwrt.org/?features=wifi_be https://toh.openwrt.org/?features=wifi_ax
To me, this is a deeply dangerous situation for the state & for the population, where it is nearly impossible for consumers and businesses to purchase gear that they can secure. Where we are at the mercy of what is on the market, and no actual securing of our own can occur.
The FCC claimed in 2015 they were not trying to forbid open source systems, but the additional compliance demands they have made unsupportable unsecurable devices the default state: the FCC mandated companies make sure the users dont have freedom, make sure the wifi performance is locked down, and the most obvious path to that end is to just lock out the user entirely. Open source isn't outlawed, but the FCC turned a good working amazing open source movement into something that is incredibly rare and hard to do. The FCC assurances (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/11/free-router-software-n...) have not proven true (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11122966): everything has gotten worse for security & availability (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11122966).
However, the approvals appear to have not been based on any objective methodology, but sometimes nothing has been approved, while otherwise there may have been some approvals but their randomness was suspicious.
Now this new interdiction continues the trend, so it is normal for people to be wary that any approvals will be based on some kind of bribing and not on any serious security audit.
> Firmware updates for existing covered devices are allowed, but only through March 1, 2027.
Good luck enforcing that with libre firmware without being sued with some amendment until oblivion and the FCC -the irony- gets sued like crazy.