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Comment by konschubert | Hacker News Reader

I’m less worried about DJIs ability to spread propaganda than TikTok’s.

I'd imagine the concern about DJI is more in the realm of distributed sensors all over the world.

I mean, Chinese electronics are everywhere. What's the specific threat here? I doubt DJI can easily exfiltrate HD video streams directly off of these drones. I'd be more concerned about their apps, cloud stuff and similar.

Instead of banning the communist hardware they could require open standards/access for interfaces, firmware and so on. Then again, sharing code does smell a bit like communism too. So let's better err on the side of freedom and ban everything.

>specific threat here?

cloud based, calling home, telemetry, video/radio surveillance, logistics exfiltration. Pretty much same arguments as in case of Chinese port cranes sending video feeds of sensitive shipments/port operations back to China, except on a global scale with high margin of deployments in security scenarios (police/fire/rescue/inspection/military).

One example is current Ukrainian situation. China gets a feed of who/where/how/what and how successful from supposedly civilian hardware.

Ukraine has their own firmware and apps for these drones. Which is exactly how to find a compromise with the situation.

With the snap of a finger DJI can dedicate 100% of its production capability towards building weapons in such a scale that nothing can match it. The have the entire stack, from IP to hardware design, hardware production, software design, and they create the best drone hardware of its kind, and apparently also top-notch software. I wonder why that is not addressed, but rather the capability to spy around, specially after seeing how they can be used in the front lines by dropping or placing bombs below trucks.

At the idea is to shrink the industrial base of the company?

At least not to support it and to foster local development.

Cutting all ties to China (in escalating trade wars) surely will hurt local development, too. You think there will be much practical education without cheap Chinese electronics?

Chinese economic influence is rapidly expanding all over the globe. In the long run, losing the US market will become less of a threat.

I'd say develop tech sovereignty despite Chinese competition. Even if it's expensive, because I think the alternative would be much more costly.

Spreading propaganda is a protected first amendment right. Just wanted to point that out.

How exactly is a DJI device going to spread propaganda? Fly around with a banner?

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