Provenance Record

Well-organized News piece (Overview / What We Know / What We Don't Know / Analysis structure), 795 words, within the 400-1200 News range. Neutral, non-sensational tone throughout; no AI self-reference. The 'What We Don't Know' section appropriately flags the undisclosed technical definition of 'advanced robotic devices' and the unknown Conditional Approval application volume, which is honest hedging rather than filler.

Read all 8 cited sources. 7 of 8 snapshots were fetched and saved to sources/2026-07/fcc-bans-new-chinese-made-humanoid-robots-and-robot-dogs-citing-national-security-risks/ (source-0 through source-3, source-5 through source-7); I decompressed each with gunzip, re-hashed the plaintext, and confirmed every sha256 matches the manifest exactly. techxplore.com (would-be source-4) failed with HTTP 403 (bot-blocked) and has no snapshot file; as a last resort I used a live WebFetch of the URL, which confirmed the 85% China market-share figure, the ~15,000-units-in-2025/Unitree+AGIBOT-5,000-each figures, and the Kangyuxiao Li Morningstar quote are all present on the live page verbatim/near-verbatim — noting explicitly this was a live fetch, not the archived snapshot the provenance chain records. docs.fcc.gov (source-0, the primary FCC order DA 26-786) was read in full: confirms the order was released July 28, 2026, the two National Security Determinations were sent to the FCC on July 27, 2026, the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 / 47 U.S.C. §§ 1601-1609 citation, and both block quotes attributed to 'the FCC order' verbatim ('collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors...' and 'networked capabilities of advanced robotic systems create extensive vulnerabilities...'). tech.yahoo.com (source-1) and abcnews.com (source-2) independently confirm the same two block quotes verbatim. abcnews.com (source-2) confirms: 85% market share, ~15,000 units shipped globally in 2025 with Unitree/AGIBOT each shipping 5,000+ and Tesla/Figure AI 'a few hundred or less,' the Brendan Carr 'secure America's critical supply chains' quote, the Mao Ning quote verbatim, the Kangyuxiao Li quote verbatim, and the September 2026 Trump-Xi meeting. fortune.com (source-3) is the same AP wire story as ABC News/CBS News (bylined Associated Press + Chan Ho-Him) and corroborates the same figures and quotes, plus the Morgan Stanley $15B-by-2030 forecast cited to it. techcrunch.com (source-5) confirms the 'exceptions may be granted if a device poses no risk' characterization and that existing power-inverter devices are unaffected. roboticsandautomationnews.com (source-6) is the most detailed trade-press account and confirms the Brendan Carr 'I welcome these Executive Branch national security determinations...' quote verbatim, the Conditional Approval process (DoW for robots; DoW or DHS for power inverters), the prospective-only design, and explicitly states the update 'does not affect sales to, or use by, the federal government or federal agencies.' cbsnews.com (source-7) is again the same AP wire story as ABC/Fortune and independently confirms the market-share, units-shipped, and quote claims cited to ABC News — but does NOT contain any language about the prospective-only design, previously-purchased-device carve-out, or federal-government exemption (verified by keyword grep for 'federal government', 'prospective', 'previously', 'already purchased', 'exempt', 'carve' — zero hits). See the misattribution finding below.

All directly-quoted material is verbatim and correctly attributed to a source that actually contains it. All checked numeric specifics (85% market share, ~15,000 units globally in 2025, Unitree/AGIBOT 5,000+ units each, Morgan Stanley's $15B-by-2030 forecast, the July 27/28, 2026 dates, the 47 U.S.C. citation) trace to a cited source that states them. The article correctly and consistently uses 'Department of War' (matching the FCC order's own self-identification as 'Department of War (DOW)'/'DoW' throughout, and Robotics and Automation News's identical usage); it never uses 'Department of Defense,' so there is no naming inconsistency in this submission's body. One misattribution found: the 'prospective only' claim (4th 'What We Know' bullet) is dual-cited to CBS News + Robotics and Automation News, but only R&A's snapshot supports it — CBS's does not, so the CBS half of that citation does not hold up on its own (the claim survives on the R&A citation). The federal-government-purchase-exemption claim (5th bullet) is cited to CBS News alone, and CBS's snapshot contains no such language at all; the claim is true and independently confirmed by Robotics and Automation News's snapshot ('does not impact purchase or use by the federal government at all'), so this is a citation-to-the-wrong-outlet error on a true, subordinate (non-headline/summary/lead) fact — the textbook case for a corrections note rather than rejection.

Substantively solid, well-sourced News piece on a real, dated, primary-source-backed FCC action. Every direct quote is verbatim, the headline/summary/lead claims (Covered List addition, ~85% China market share) are solidly multi-sourced, and the Department of War terminology is used correctly and consistently. The single recoverable issue is a misattributed citation for a true, subordinate fact (federal-government purchase exemption cited to CBS News instead of Robotics and Automation News). APPROVE_WITH_CORRECTIONS with a corrections record documenting the reattribution.