Key Takeaways
- The “Countering CCP Drones Act” ban bill could force DJI drones out of US due to security risks.
- Rep. Stefanik claims DJI threatens national security as it passes data to China. DJI’s ties to state-owned firms add to the concern.
- If the bill passes, DJI’s dominance in the drone market could be challenged by companies like Skydio and Parrot due to security concerns.
A bill put forward by the US House of Energy and Commerce Committee could potentially ban DJI drones from the country, the New York Times reports. Dubbed the “Countering CCP Drones Act,” the bill would put DJI drones on a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) list of equipment and services that “pose a national security risk” if they’re connected to local networks. The list also blocks businesses from using federal funds to buy banned items.
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The bill was originally introduced by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in 2022, but has largely flown under the radar until now. Speaking with the Times, Stefanik claims that US agencies have discovered that DJI passes data about “critical infrastructure” along to China. “DJI presents an unacceptable national security risk, and it is past time that drones made by Communist China are removed from America,” she says. DJI is actually a private business, but it’s backed by multiple state-owned firms that could hypothetically exert influence over its products.
Is DJI really a threat?
DJI has been a controversial company in US politics for many years. Security vulnerabilities have sometimes been discovered in its mobile apps, and in 2020 the US Department of Commerce put DJI on its “Entity List,” barring American firms from exporting technology to it. One of the greatest criticisms has been its sale of drones to the Chinese government itself, since some of these have been used to monitor the Uyghurs — potentially making the company complicit in ethnic cleansing. The US Department of Defense added DJI to a blacklist in 2022. DJI products have been used in other conflicts around the world — the war in Ukraine, for example, has seen the company’s drones used by both defenders and invading Russian forces. Sales were halted in the two countries following public exposure of the issue.
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The Countering CCP Drones Act has yet to pass, but will undoubtably have a dramatic impact on the drone industry if it does. In spite of security concerns, DJI is far and away the industry’s leader, selling products to everyone from hobbyists through to oil refineries and Hollywood studios. Its absence would leave a gap for Western companies like Skydio and Parrot, which have been around for years but have struggled to even approach DJI’s market share.
If added to the FCC’s list, DJI would join other banned Chinese tech giants like Huawei and ZTE. In fact, the US government has been taking an increasingly hardline stance against Chinese technology, for instance blocking Nvidia from selling advanced chips in China. Just this week US President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, 270 days to divest itself of TikTok or else have the app banned. The concern is that Chinese government could demand access to data on American users, or use the app for purposes like propaganda or misinformation.
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