The Federal Communications Commission has started blocking gadgets over the chips inside them. On October 13th, FCC chair Brendan Carr’s agency gave itself a new power. It can now block any device containing a computer chip made by a company on its national security threat list.
The agency used that power for the first time this week. It blocked two gadgets because they contained what the FCC calls foreign surveillance chips. The FCC did not name the two products, and it did not answer a request for comment.
The Chip at the Center
The FCC did name the chip involved. It is a HiVision Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision SoC, which turns a raw camera sensor into a working camera. That chip typically powers home security cameras, dashcams and similar connected devices.
The component is often sold as a package with a Sony camera sensor. Some AliExpress listings even ship it with a lens already attached. The FCC says HiVision markets the chip as designed for the surveillance market, with built-in detection algorithms for human faces.
HiVision is a subsidiary of Huawei. Huawei sits on the FCC’s Covered List of companies deemed a national security risk. That link is the reason the chip is now treated as a surveillance component rather than a generic processor.
Closing a Loophole
The new authority closes a gap the agency has worried about for years. Companies could previously hide a banned supplier’s component inside another company’s finished gadget. The FCC can now block the whole device once that component is found.
The commission has expanded its reach in similar steps before. It gave itself the power to ban gadgets retroactively, to block modular radio transmitters, and to target routers and robot vacuums. Each move extended control from networks into physical hardware.
Critics still ask the same question about every one of these actions. Is the FCC genuinely keeping people safer, or is it picking winners and losers while making a show of enforcement? The agency has repeatedly declined to discuss its process in detail.
For buyers, the practical effect is a shorter supply of cheap imported cameras and connected gadgets. For manufacturers, the compliance question now starts at the bill of materials, not at the radio certification stage.
Source: The Verge — The FCC is beginning to block gadgets with foreign surveillance chips
Related reading: The US-China chip war in 2026: semiconductor export controls escalate
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