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The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

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Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#51
post #22
post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

Maybe, or maybe it’s just good policy to not import a network of drones from an adversary to democracies across the world, which includes the EU most importantly as China helps Russia with its invasion of Ukraine and is gearing up for some activity in Taiwan. People can just record all this stuff on their iPhones that they already have. You don’t need a DJI drone to record police malfeasance. Maybe you do in China or…

> as China helps Russia with its invasion of Ukraine

America is helping Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#52
post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

Merely the documentary function of small drones is a threat to the current US government - their game changing effect on the battlefield in Ukraine is (one hopes) less relevant here. Just the threat of people taking pictures of what's happening is enough for them to restrict flight over an entire large city when ICE moves in. https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10/02/faa-drone-zone-...

[deleted]

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#53
post #16

News next week : "Donald Trump Jr opens US Drone company with exclusive import license from China." > DJI responded publicly that month that they had nothing to hide, and subsequently spent a year trying to convince the U.S. government to begin the audit. But no federal agency even began There's your answer. There was never any concern over Americans data being sent to China. Also they didn't "Follow through", they s…

It’s hard to say on this one. There is a pretty extensive history of Chinese govt spying via consumer products [0]. Having worked formerly with the intelligence community, they tend not to tip their hand when they are aware of asymmetrical information.

It’s plausible that the determination was made that there were backdoors/spy equipment/whatever in the products, so no audit or smooth talking from corp representatives would make a difference in this case, given the supply chain remains controlled by an adversary. If you don’t trust that an audit can be executed with integrity then there’s not much point in conducting one at all.

The fact that this has been extended to all foreign drones does make that feel like more of a political statement though, or at the very least the original intent is being hijacked for political theater.

0. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa...

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#54
post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

Trump will be gone in 3 years. Maybe fewer depending on his health. It's unlikely that this change will have any meaningful effect on US democracy. On the other hand, little drones are effectively munitions now. That means drone manufacturing capacity is effectively munitions manufacturing capacity. We're giving potential adversaries economies of scale building things that may be used to kill us. I'm generally a pret…

That logic also means they shouldn't be banned under 2nd amendment protections, no?

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#55
post #24
post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

[flagged]

> You can't take one tragic mistake or bad-apple cop and draw conclusions about the fate of the country from it.

As per a sibling comment:

> The bad apples metaphor originated as a warning of the corrupting influence of one corrupt or sinful person on a group: that "one bad apple can spoil the barrel". Over time the concept has been used to describe the opposite situation, where "a few bad apples" should not be seen as representative of the rest of their group. This latter version is often used in the context of police misconduct.

> The bad apples metaphor originates from the proverb "A rotten apple quickly infects its neighbor", first recorded as used in English in 1340.[1]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_apples

* https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/one-bad-apple-spoil...

And the real problem is that the highest levels of government is defending the actions of the bad-apple cop.

It is the fact that these crazy high quotas that ICE agents must meet are a high-level government policy that are 'forcing' the agents to do these crazy things (if they want to keep their jobs); of course some ICE thugs enjoy doing this and like the power trip(s).

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#56
post #24
post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

[flagged]

It's not just one bad apple. There have been 16 ICE shootings resulting in four deaths during Trump's 2nd term and 32 people died in ICE detention during 2025. There are multiple videos out of Minneapolis & St. Paul since Renee Good's shooting where ICE have broken down the door of someone's home, beat a man and left him bleeding in another part of town, accosted someone at a gas station, tried to enter the home of a family where the DoorDash lady had fled for safety, threatened the death to drivers whom they accused of following them, posed for a picture with an influencer yelling about how they executed one of the protestors, and caused chaos at a high school leading to public schools temporarily shutting down.

This is officially sanctioned domestic terrorism against the citizens of Minnesota and no American should stand for it.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#57
post #24
post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

[flagged]

>You can't take one tragic mistake or bad-apple cop and draw conclusions

When have Trump's administration ever suggested it was either? So far they have said:

-it was an act of self-defense by Ross

-Ms. Good ran over Ross

-Ross has immunity even if he committed murder

-Ms. Good was very disrespectful to law enforcement

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#58
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Hint: the current democrat establishment is also authoritarian. you're so, so close to it!

We don't even have to go that far to realize how quickly the democratic establishment would roll over in the face of a civil war. I don't think Chuck Schumer is going to be leading an armed resistance movement anytime soon.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#59
post #16

News next week : "Donald Trump Jr opens US Drone company with exclusive import license from China." > DJI responded publicly that month that they had nothing to hide, and subsequently spent a year trying to convince the U.S. government to begin the audit. But no federal agency even began There's your answer. There was never any concern over Americans data being sent to China. Also they didn't "Follow through", they s…

It's doubtful that there is currently a backdoor or anything that would fail an audit.

The problem is the software updates. Whoever controls those keys has an entire domestic fleet a single firmware update away. Probably won't even be DJI, but some either state or non-state hacker that happens to acquire the update keys.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#60
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I guess you haven't read how the government reacted to the incident. Let's put it mildly and say: is wasn't treated as a mistake or bad-apple cop. Just an example: "Vance said the ICE officer was clearly justified in shooting Good. The officer was clearly acting in self-defense, Vance said. He framed Good as "a victim of left-wing ideology" who was spurred by an alleged network of politically motivated groups to inte…

And not one apology or sympathetic comment towards the deceased. Shame on everyone. What a sad timeline.
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