On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) reacted to reports of Chinese-manufactured drones intruding into restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. by calling for a ban across all levels of government on such “Chinese-made surveillance tools” like the Department of Defense already did.
Waltz stated, “The Chinese manufacturer, DJI, has promised that they put in place software called geofencing, which basically means these drones literally cannot fly over sensitive sites or D.C. itself. The problem is it’s really easy, anybody can go in and hack this technology. What’s the danger? They could be used to swarm airports and actually take airliners down. They could be used to swarm a certain address or a large gathering like an inauguration or they could sit on, for example, a sensitive building, a sensitive site and collect all of the cell, WiFi, and other data. And if the Chinese are behind it, by their own law, that company has to provide any data that the Chinese Communist Party asks for. So, we’ve banned them in the Defense Department. Sen. Rubio (R-FL) is looking to ban them government-wide, but we need to do even more. We have state and local law enforcement that are flying these things. So, not only do we need more defenses, we need to stop American agencies from using these Chinese-made surveillance tools.”
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