The FCC just saved Netgear from its router ban for no obvious reason

https://www.theverge.com/tech/911888/netgear-router-ban-conditional-approval

66•HotGarbage•1h ago

Comments

duxup•1h ago

I feel like pretending a department under this administration's thumb is actually going to act honestly is a bit absurd.

They made a donation ... somewhere. Now they're all good. None of Trump's bluster is honest, they're just graft gates.

It wasn't any different during the first administration. I worked at a company slated to be acquired by a foreign company. But the approval just never came from the feds. Then one day the acquiring foreign company CEO visited the White House and that day Trump approved it. Trump even made a little speech about jobs. Then we were all told we were going to be laid off... just like that almost all the American jobs gone. Shortly after one of Trump's companies announced a big land deal in the home country of the acquiring company. MEGA ...

da02•1h ago

What was the home country of the acquiring company? UAE? Argentina?

tfwnopmt•48m ago

MEGA was founded by Kim Dotcom, who currently lives in New Zealand

sathackr•12m ago

MEGA is now headquartered in Hungary...who until very recently was run by someone very much aligned with the far right movement.

cjbgkagh•1h ago

The looting stage of collapse, people tend to think someone will come and save things but so long as there is more money in decline the leaders will do that instead.

ericmay•54m ago

The collapse as you call it is occurring precisely because we started hating ourselves and pitted one another against one another, whether that’s by class, race, or gender. And both major political parties are guilty of that to varying degrees. We are an unserious society, obsessed with the new Buc-eez gas station, TikTok, and abstract art. We forgot that Communism and Fascism are social death spirals, and that good governance requires not just an education but a desire to learn and engage. If this is collapse (it’s not) it’s largely because of factors such as that. Sometimes I don’t blame the Islamic fundamentalists and their chants of Death to America. I’d fight to the death too to stop some dumb ass gas station beaver and a bunch of MAGA folks and furries from setting up shop in my country too, if only it hasn’t already happened here.

cjbgkagh•32m ago

I know there is a personal responsibility / call to action in there but I think it elides both how politics work and how people work. Politics is run by cynical operatives skilled in mass manipulation and people generally believe what they’re told to believe. Encouraging people to tilt at windmills is one of the ways to undermine effective opposition. I think actual effective opposition is localism / a general devolution of power.

It’s all moot anyway because AI is already smart enough to upend the economy / social order. A productivity boom without a consumption boom will kill margins across the board.

oldge•1h ago

Either they agreed to put the back door in their routers or someone got paid off.

xvxvx•1h ago

They paid the shakedown fee.

nielsbot•36m ago

that’s the outcome of soft fascism: a lot of pay to play.

cjbgkagh•18m ago

I passed on an invitation to tender a number of years ago because there was no way to meet the minority / women quota that was tied to it. The big players use pass through front companies which isn’t feasible for me as I’m a solo operator.

The Netgear thing is more egregious but the quotas are more pervasive. I would like to be rid of both.

Bender•1h ago

no obvious reason

Could it be related to Netgear being manufactured in Vietnam Thailand and Indonesia to avoid China tariffs and that somehow got them through an audit? I only ask if the overall unwritten goal is to avoid China.

0o_MrPatrick_o0•1h ago

‘The United States’ foreign router ban didn’t make a whole lot of sense, and today may not change that.`

???

No obvious reason? What if the Executive Branch is a dog chasing cars?

It’s just doing things.

bediger4000•32m ago

Id by "doing things" you mean "accumulating mysterious anonymous crypto payments" and "getting a large draw from a shell company", then yes.

frugalmail•1h ago

I was under the impression the ping back to china security issues are what prompted this, until they were evaluated. I don't think Netgear would have a problem passing the audit.

jonahbenton•57m ago

Why is TP Link still being sold.

wtallis•54m ago

Among other reasons: the recent ban was on FCC approval for new products. Existing products that had already secured FCC approval are unaffected by the new policy and can continue being sold.

elevation•48m ago

I would love to see the US rekindle the domestic manufacture of affordable consumer/prosumer network hardware. The US can already manufacture SoCs, PWBs, and chassis hardware, we just need a business case for putting it all together. Managed well, sustained protection from international competition could provide this business case, and buffer against global shipping disruptions, while the sheer volume of CPE equipment would eventually drive down costs.

But fickle bans will never get us there.

akulbe•45m ago

Follow the money.

SilverElfin•29m ago

Obviously the Trump family is being made richer or more powerful somehow. It’s obvious. Saying there is no obvious reason is as insane as believing the delay in banning TikTok wasn’t corrupt.

OutOfHere•27m ago

My bigger fear is whether Netgear has one or more backdoors exploitable for use by the US government. It's firmware will have to be reverse engineered and then reviewed by AI.

In the long term, an absence of competition bodes poorly.

kennywinker•18m ago

Why AI? An unproven proprietary tech is your go-to over skilled security researchers?

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The FCC just saved Netgear from its router ban for no obvious reason

Comments

Stop Flock

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The FCC just saved Netgear from its router ban for no obvious reason

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I wrote to Flock's privacy contact to opt out of their domestic spying program

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