- DJI has filed a petition with the US Supreme Court
- It claims the recent FCC ban on its products is unlawful
- New DJI products can no longer be launched in the US
A ban on new DJI products in the US kicked in last December, but the issue isn’t closed yet: DJI has taken its case to the US Supreme Court, arguing that government authorities haven’t actually found any evidence of security issues.
The ban came into force almost by default – not through any new discoveries about DJI, but because a security audit of the Chinese company wasn’t carried out in advance of a December 23 deadline imposed by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Without getting fresh security clearance, DJI was automatically shunted to the FCC’s Covered Entity List, a record of companies believed to pose “an unacceptable risk” to national security (it’s the same list that Huawei is on). That course of events is unconstitutional and unlawful, DJI argues.
“Despite repeated efforts to engage with the government, DJI has never been given the chance to provide information to address or refute any concerns,” the company said in a statement to the press. “These procedural and substantive deficiencies violate the Constitution and federal law.”
Does DJI stand a chance?
As DJI points out in the petition that it has filed with the US Court of Appeals, for a company to be added to the Covered Entity List, the FCC needs to identify a national security threat from the company or the products it makes – something that the FCC has so far failed to do with DJI.
From the side of the US authorities, there are concerns about allowing any Chinese company widespread access to telecommunications networks. DJI’s drones spend a lot of time connecting to the internet, and capturing a lot of footage through cameras and microphones, and that’s something the FCC is worried about.
While we wait for the US courts to decide what’s next, new DJI launches in the US are in limbo. Existing DJI tech can continue to be used in the country however, and it may be that there are still new DJI products to come that got FCC approval before December, such as the rumored Osmo Pocket 4.
Unfortunately for US consumers wanting access to some of the best drones on the market, DJI could be fighting a losing battle here. Its requests to be audited before December fell on deaf ears, and it’s unlikely that the FCC will suddenly become proactive now.
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