Mastodawn

scribbler Mar 28

It's not getting enough attention that the Trump administration has banned the sale of ALL WiFi routers made outside of the US. It's one of the first steps required to control Americans' use of the Internet, to spy on what you're doing online, to suppress information they don't want you to see and to even turn off the Internet at their discretion.

This is looking increasingly like a trap.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/trump-fcc-prohibits-import-and-sale-of-new-wi-fi-routers-made-outside-us/

FCC imposes sweeping ban on foreign-made routers, affecting all new models

Trump admin to decide which router makers get exemptions from FCC import ban.

Ars Technica

Felis_Catus_Domesticus Mar 27

old models still work..

openwrt.. the "linux" of router operating systems..

plan ahead while they still let you.

https://openwrt.org/

[OpenWrt Wiki] Welcome to the OpenWrt Project

quangobaud Mar 27

UK is already there.
Internet Connectable devices have had to be compliant to a (hackable by government level) standard for a few years.

FurballsNHairballs Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99
Brendan Carr just keeps chugging Trump"s mushroom.

FurballsNHairballs Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99
At some point his next presser should have the question of " How do Trump's balls taste?" asked.
🤔😐

jackcole Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 Trump wants to control internet the same way China does including putting spyware on home routers.

Axel Gutmann Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 That's banning *all* routers. There ain't and won't be any American made router in the foreseeable future.

Oyu F'ka Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 Definitely a trap.

lemgandi Mar 27

Hm. I have never used the stock software on any of my routers. Does it really matter where the hardware was made?

Gabriel Adrian Samfira Mar 28

@lemgandi @VeroniqueB99

Yup. If you control the hw, you can embed malware within firmware (efi for example), which will survive a reinstall or just have your own minimal secondary system like intel management engine (but less bloated).

lemgandi Mar 30

@gabriel @VeroniqueB99 Ah, most interesting. Thx.

Kerplunk Mar 27

This is looking increasingly like a trap.

Or a sales pitch for Starlink and v creepy musk makes more Billions.

TroikaFox Mar 27

This stuff has me worried

Taran Rampersad Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 yeah. It isn't.

I posted it a while back and was surprised it didn't travel like a helium post did.

Fortunately, I am not limited by Trump at present.
Unfortunately, many I care about are.

But they would not leave Meta despite my warnings over years so...

I cannot help them. 😐

@VeroniqueB99 Spying (on everyone) is achieved >>10 years ago.

flamingpenguin Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 how many routers are made in the US?

@VeroniqueB99 It goes along with the ID requirements, closing Android and compromising the markets for RAM, storage and compute.

Feedback_ATK Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 I would second that the recent meta court cases are another step towards that smwe goal

❄️SnowyIn🇨🇦❄️Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99
The US NSA has always been spying on online activity--there are words that flag conversations etc....
All Canadian internet runs north-south through the US, often when we are accessing websites, even within our own city it jumps to and fro, and that's one of the reasons why we outside your borders need digital sovereignty.

And they can spy on your wifi even if you use non-US made products

https://nationtalk.ca/story/researchers-map-the-internets-boomerang-routes-where-data-transfers-between-canadians-move-through-the-us-increasing-exposure-to-state-surveillance

@VeroniqueB99 For those unaware, a PC can be used for routing. But PC's have had their own spyware chip since about 2010 (IME). A better solution is a fast Rasp. Pi (No spychip).

Brian Allbee Mar 27

@shwell @VeroniqueB99 agree.

The instructions are out there (this is an older variant)

Use Raspberry Pi 3 As Router : 10 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables https://www.instructables.com/Use-Raspberry-Pi-3-As-Router/

Use Raspberry Pi 3 As Router

Use Raspberry Pi 3 As Router: According to Wikipedia, a router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. If we tear-down a wireless router, we will probably find an application specific processor that handles data packets and an RF segment tha…

Instructables

@BrianAllbee @VeroniqueB99 Thanks very much. I note the US aren't touching WAP's for now which is my solution.

Andrew Furrow Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 Brendan Carr needs his ass paddled on live television.

Cuz it is indeed…

The time to resist is now, because tomorrow its might be too late…

@VeroniqueB99
One might run OpenBSD / FreeBSD / NetBSD and free himself. Or maybe use pfsense as a commercial product you can trust.

#openbsd #freeb #netbsd #pfsense

@mudala @VeroniqueB99

#freebsd is already accepting LLM slop ...

@as400 @VeroniqueB99
Naahhh...where did you read that? That would be a reason to switch to OpenBSD for sure. I mean...I'm floored right now §8-(

Shawn Webb Mar 27

@as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 Last I knew, #FreeBSD adopted an official policy rejecting AI/LLM patch submissions. They announced that policy last year at the FreeBSD Developer Summit.

Can you provide a git commit hash or a link to LLM slop in FreeBSD?

some quirky girl Mar 27

@lattera @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 there is no such policy. core is currently considering what our LLM policy should be, they did not announce it yet.

Shawn Webb Mar 27

@lw @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 I remember seeing #FreeBSD branded slides and a presentation at #BSDCan last year regarding LLM/AI use in FreeBSD source.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the slides, but I'm sure they do exist.

some quirky girl Mar 27

@lattera @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 there is no such policy. there was some sort of pre-announcement of "we are working on a policy" which bad news organisations like heise.de reported as "FreeBSD rejects LLM code contributions".

Shawn Webb Mar 27

@lw @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 It's possible I might be misremembering or misunderstanding the presentation.

If I get some spare time this weekend, I'll dig deeper for that presentation.

some quirky girl Mar 27

@lattera @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 i don't doubt your claim there was some sort of presentation related to this (i would be interested to know the details, actually) but as a FreeBSD committer, i can tell you, 100% for sure, we do not have a policy forbidding LLM-assisted commits.

Shawn Webb Mar 27

@lw @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 Understood. But I"m still curious about that claim (not made by you) that LLM slop has already made it to FreeBSD.

some quirky girl Mar 27

@lattera @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 not personally verified, but: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@evgandr/116291818767869978

Eugene :freebsd: :emacslogo: (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image LOL, the first vibe-coded commit landed in the FreeBSD. The fun part — in this commit was changed literally one line in one file. And this required the use of LLM, LMAO?! :drgn_blush_giggle: :drgn_blush_giggle::drgn_blush_giggle: #FreeBSD #LLM

BSD.cafe Mastodon Portal

some quirky girl Mar 27

@lattera @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 well, i can verify that 6495dafd58b94a44fc9bc966ef47d6bc6916f5b9 exists in my local git checkout and does include "Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <[email protected]>".

Shawn Webb Mar 27

@lw @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 I'd call that an LLM commit in a third-party project that FreeBSD just happens to adopt.

some quirky girl Mar 27

@lattera @as400 @mudala @VeroniqueB99 well, okay. i don't really care about this issue one way or the other, i was just trying to be helpful :-)

i can tell you, anecdotally, i know at least several FreeBSD committers who eagerly use LLMs to write code and are very on-board with the AI hype train. it's almost certain those people have committed LLM-assisted code.

@lw @lattera @as400 @VeroniqueB99
Is it even possible to review all code? How can core take care of all this? It would be a tremendous burden I think.

Shawn Webb Mar 27

@mudala @lw @as400 @VeroniqueB99 I generally pay attention to the #FreeBSD src tree commit-by-commit. I've found a few vulnerabilities that way. I'm aware of at least three threat actors at the nation state level that do the same. :-)

some quirky girl Mar 27

core doesn't review all code. if they adopted an anti-LLM policy, it would be something akin to a "don't commit code you plagiarised from a commercial project" policy, i.e. we can't prove it, but it's bad and please don't do it... and if you do, we'll probably revoke your commit bit.

@lattera @as400 @VeroniqueB99

@lw @lattera @as400 @VeroniqueB99

Hiding from the world <--- Me like

(src: https://www.tierwelt.ch)

some quirky girl Mar 27

@mudala @lattera @as400 @VeroniqueB99 uhh i'm sorry did you just send me a picture of a weird three-legged butt? i am so confused :-d

@lw @lattera @as400 @VeroniqueB99

😂

@as400 @VeroniqueB99
I read "Current Policy on AI-Generated Code in FreeBSD
FreeBSD is not currently accepting AI-generated code. The project has expressed concerns regarding the quality and licensing implications of using code produced by AI tools."

@mudala 🤷‍♀️

Graeme 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 Is there even such a thing? Even the us brands are made in China... And Trumpistan wants backdoors into the limes of cisco.
Putin will be proud of his protégé...

@pa27 👍

decapitae Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99 They took notes from ISIS, Iran, Russia, North Korea, and the nazis - not because they wanted to install democracy there, but because they wanted to end it here

@decapitae 👍

Could be a case of knowing but don't care ...
Every day in every way they say something then somebody points out if that happens they will lose money ... so they do nothing knowing their voters have short and selective memories ...

@MyView true.

𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉Mar 27

@VeroniqueB99
“Routers for this purpose are defined as “consumer-grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer,” and which “forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between networked systems.”

Hmm. Sounds like that would include more than just routers, but also e.g. “smart speakers”. Whatevs

@ancientsounds bad is what that is.

@VeroniqueB99 I've posted about this a bunch. Written about it too. There's just too much else at the moment, I guess. idk.

@moira 👍 (sorry I only just saw it)

@VeroniqueB99 Oh please, there's no apology needed - it's barely been mentioned in the press. But I think it matters a lot more than many others seem to think.

@moira 👍 💯

Amoshias Mar 28

@VeroniqueB99 part of the reason it hasn't been widely reported is because it's not a real thing... it's just another trump shakedown.