The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says it has stopped a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter from being sold in the United States because both contain chips made by HiSilicon, a subsidiary of Huawei. It is the first time the regulator has enforced rules that bar devices built with “smart” components from companies on its Covered List, the agency said on Thursday.
According to the FCC’s news release, dated 22 October, the agency’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) “prevented two devices (a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter) from being marketed or sold in the United States” this week. The FCC described the chip inside them as “a dangerous foreign chip produced by a Covered List entity—namely, HiSilicon, a subsidiary of Huawei.”
The FCC did not name the companies behind either device, give model numbers or identify the chip.
The FCC Cited HiSilicon’s Own Marketing for the Chip
The release quotes HiSilicon advertising the chip as “designed for the surveillance market”, with “[b]uilt in detection algorithms for human faces.” Reuters, in a report syndicated by Devdiscourse, described the action as “the first time it has exercised authority under new rules.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in the release: “The FCC will continue to act with vigilance in protecting and promoting America’s national security. Video devices containing surveillance chips produced by Covered List entities pose an obvious and unacceptable risk to the nation and our people. I applaud the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology for their work and for preventing this potential spyware from obtaining the approvals necessary for marketing and sale in the U.S. We will continue to act aggressively to enforce our rules and secure American networks.”
The release carries no response from Huawei or HiSilicon, and none of the reports reviewed by TSN included one.
Huawei Has Been on the Covered List Since 2021
Most electronic devices need an FCC equipment authorisation before they can be imported, marketed or sold in the US, the FCC says. Companies on the Covered List have long been barred from getting authorisation for their own equipment, but until this month devices built by other companies using their components were not covered.
HiSilicon is not listed by name. The FCC’s Covered List has included Huawei telecoms equipment since 12 March 2021, and a footnote says the named producers “should be read to include the subsidiaries and affiliates.” The FCC has also used the list against whole product categories: in March it added routers produced abroad, a move TSN covered in its report on TP-Link’s letter to the FCC.
The Rule Bars Logic-Bearing Parts From Listed Producers
The rules come from the FCC’s Third Report and Order in docket 21-232, adopted on 22 July and summarised in the Federal Register on 11 September. They took effect on 13 October.
The order prohibits authorisation of any device that includes a “logic-bearing hardware component” produced by a Covered List entity, where the device would itself be barred if that entity had made all of it. The FCC defines such a component as one that uses timing signals at more than 9,000 pulses per second with digital techniques, or that uses radio frequency energy to process data. The Commission’s reasoning, according to the Federal Register summary, is that “a compromised logic-bearing component can enable interception, disruption, sabotage, or unauthorized access regardless of who assembles or brands the finished device.”
The FCC drew the rule narrowly. It declined to ban all components, declined to extend the ban to any company owned or controlled by a foreign adversary, and declined to cover software or firmware “at this time”, keeping the record open on some of those questions. The ban applies only to companies listed as producers. It does not reach entries based on where something is made, such as drones (unmanned aircraft systems), their critical components and routers “produced in a foreign country”, unless the company that makes the part is listed in its own right.
The rule also looks forward only. Equipment authorised before 13 October keeps its authorisation, and applications already pending then are exempt unless they are amended to add or change a logic-bearing component.
Online marketplaces will also have to show a device’s FCC ID at the point of sale: from 1 March 2027 where the platform holds or owns the stock, and from 1 June 2027 where it relies on sellers’ certifications. The FCC estimated one-off costs of no more than $300 million and annual costs under $40 million, against benefits it said “could exceed $1 billion annually.”
The FCC Stopped Both Devices Before Sale but Named Neither
The defensive point in the FCC’s account is timing. By its own description, neither device got through the approval process: OET stopped them before they obtained “the approvals necessary for marketing and sale.” That is the gap the July order was written to close. Before 13 October, a listed company’s chip inside another firm’s product was not by itself a bar to authorisation. Within nine days of the rule taking effect, the agency says, it had used it against two devices. The marketplace FCC ID requirement, once it applies next year, is meant to make it easier to check whether a product on sale was actually authorised.
What the release leaves out matters as much. The FCC has not said how its engineers found the chips, and DroneXL, a drone-industry news site, noted that nothing in the release says whether the applicants disclosed them. Without device names, brands or FCC IDs, other buyers of similar camera modules cannot check their own supply chains against the two cases.
The legal test also rests on who made the part, not on what it does. The surveillance features the FCC quoted come from HiSilicon’s marketing, but under the order, any logic-bearing HiSilicon part would trigger the same ban because Huawei is listed. The reverse also holds: a chip with similar capabilities from a company that is not on the list, or one made under a production-location entry such as those for drones, is not caught by this rule unless its maker is listed separately.
The component rule is one of several recent US moves involving Chinese technology firms, alongside the sanctions on the Chinese backers of an AI start-up TSN reported this week. Huawei’s chips remain central to China’s own AI push: iFlytek says its latest Spark model was trained only on Chinese chips, and its model card gives setup instructions for Huawei’s Ascend processors as well as Nvidia GPUs.
The FCC says it “will continue to aggressively enforce its Covered List component rules.” The first marketplace FCC ID deadline is 1 March 2027.
Sources
- FCC, “FCC Blocks Two Devices Containing Foreign Surveillance Chips”, news release, 22 October 2026: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-426130A1.txt (landing page: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-blocks-two-devices-containing-foreign-surveillance-chips)
- Federal Register, FCC Third Report and Order, ET Docket No. 21-232, FCC 26-50, 11 September 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-11/html/2026-18535.htm
- FCC, Covered List: https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist
- Reuters via Devdiscourse, “US blocks two devices with Chinese-made surveillance chips”, 22 October 2026 (REPORTED): https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/3996679-us-blocks-two-devices-with-chinese-made-surveillance-chips
- DroneXL, Haye Kesteloo, “FCC Catches Huawei Surveillance Chips in Its First Parts Ban Case”, 22 October 2026 (REPORTED): https://dronexl.co/2026/10/22/fcc-hisilicon-chips-dash-cam-video-transmitter-first-component-ban/
Related stories
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- US Sanctions the Chinese Backers of an Ex-Google Engineer’s AI Start-up
- iFlytek Says Its 293B Spark X2.6 Was Trained Only on Chinese Chips
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