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

Summary

Things just went from bad to worse for the hobby-grade drone industry in the U.S. For all the building tension this past year over whether the American government would actually ban top drone brand DJI, not only did the ban pass on December 23, 2025, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) drastically expanded the list of banned drones. Now every foreign-made drone is on the FCC’s “Covered List.” You know, the ban list. The law is now in effect, and nearly every drone brand faces a slow exile from the American market.Our Favorite Drones You Can Buy (For Now)DJI’s Premier DroneDJI Mavic 4 ProNow 19% OffBest ValuePotensic Atom SENow 34% OffGreat CameraPotensic Atom 2Now 21% OffOne could say that the climax came as a whimper, since the U.S. government quite literally ghosted the company and failed to follow through on its own provision to review DJI. But one could also say the decision came as a loud bang, since the effect on the consumer drone market in the U.S. will be profound.The showdown had been a long time coming. For seven years Congress has dithered over whether the Chinese company was subject to interference from and control by the Chinese government, and whether such suspected control posed a risk to American customers’ data. And then on December 23, 2024, the U.S. Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act. It included an amendment requesting a review from an “appropriate national security agency” to prove that DJI doesn’t share user data from American drones with the Chinese government, giving the company one year to submit to and pass the review.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. As the clock ticked down toward December 23, 2025, when the reprieve would expire and the law’s enforcement would begin automatically, we wondered what the government’s silence actually meant. Would the U.S. jus...