You’ve probably heard the US government has banned foreign-made consumer Wi-Fi routers over national security fears.

You might be wondering: WTF is going on?

Just another day in America under Donald Trump and FCC chairman Brendan Carr. You’re probably fine for now, but if you want to know why there’s so much chaos, read on.

The government’s not taking away my router, right?

No, you can keep using your router in the United States of America no matter where it was made — the FCC is crystal-clear about that. You can even go buy a replacement: “Consumers will continue to be able to purchase previously authorized routers,” it writes.

Is there a recall on “vulnerable” routers? Do I need to patch them?

Nope. Despite the alleged national security threat, no action is required.

“Consumers currently using covered routers in small and home offices do not need to do anything,” writes the FCC. There are no restrictions on existing routers whatsoever, it adds.

What about outside of the home? Will the government stop using vulnerable routers?

No. The FCC says the government can keep using them.

US agencies do buy products from companies it has claimed to be worried about. For example, the Department of Defense and NASA have purchased equipment from TP-Link, which has been investigated by the government but still controls at least a third of the market for US consumer routers.

That’s a whole lot of nothing. So just how bad is this threat?

Here’s a document attempting to justify the ban. It claims hackers have been able to:

Carry out direct attacks against American civilians in their homes
Steal intellectual property
Create botnets to disrupt US communications

It also states:

“Additionally, routers produced abroad were directly implicated in the Volt, Flax, and Salt Typhoon cyberattacks which targeted critical American communications, energy, transportation, and water infrastructure.”

Source: https://www.theverge.com/tech/899906/fcc-router-ban-march-2026-explainer