Banned at Home, Sold to Bomb Gaza

US online retailers have begun removing Chinese-made electronics from their storefronts. ^[1] The removals follow a ban issued by the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, the US regulator that oversees communications, broadcast, and radio spectrum. The FCC says products from Chinese telecommunications companies including Huawei and ZTE are used by the Chinese government to spy on American consumers. ^[2]

That is the official justification. Foreign surveillance of American citizens is treated as a national security threat. The response is a ban.

A different question is what American companies are doing with their own surveillance and targeting technology. The answer is that they are selling it. Abroad. To governments at war.

The two columns describe the same industry, viewed from different ends.

Palantir, a US-based data analytics firm, has developed software that uses data to augment decision-making in warfare. ^[3] The company has reported second-quarter revenue of more than one billion dollars. ^[7] Palantir sells its software to countries including Israel. ^[4]

The software has been used in Israel’s military operations in Gaza. ^[5] The video that surfaced this week described the software being used to help identify which hospital to bomb next. ^[6]

A hospital. The single word is enough.

The pattern is plain enough to state directly. American regulators ban Chinese electronics to protect Americans from foreign surveillance. American companies sell surveillance and targeting software to foreign militaries, where it is used against civilians. The protection of American privacy and the export of American surveillance technology are the same industry, viewed from two ends. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

There is a gap that is not a coincidence. It is a policy choice. The United States government acts against foreign surveillance of its own citizens. It does not act against the export of its own surveillance technology to foreign militaries, even when that technology is used to kill civilians. Privacy is treated as a domestic issue. Surveillance is treated as an export industry. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

The technology that the FCC says is too dangerous for Americans to keep in their homes is the same category of technology that American firms sell abroad to foreign militaries. The only differences are the nationality of the customer and the location of the target.

There is a final point worth stating without softening it. The companies and regulators involved will not be held accountable the way the victims of these decisions will. The bombing of a hospital in Gaza is a single event with hundreds of consequences. The decision to sell the software is a contract with a quarterly revenue line. ^[7] The victims count their dead. The sellers count their dollars. Both are in the same ledger.

Surveillance technology is not neutral. It is built to do specific things to specific people. The decision to ban a product in one country and sell a similar product to a foreign military is a decision about which people count. In this story, Americans count. Palestinians in Gaza do not. ^{[5] [6]}

That is the policy. That is the market. That is the choice that has been made, and that continues to be made, every quarter, every contract, every software update. The host of the video that surfaced these details acknowledged the irony of publishing a video critical of data harvesting on Instagram, a platform whose business model is built on the same data collection. ^[8] The acknowledgment is correct. It is also, by itself, not enough.

Americans should not have to be surveilled by foreign governments. That is correct. The same Americans should not be selling the tools to surveil and kill people abroad. That is also correct. Both should be true. Right now, only one is.