These countries and government agencies have banned DeepSeek

Source: Bianniu.com

According to foreign media reports, a few days after its artificial intelligence models and chatbot applications became popular, DeepSeek began to be scrutinized by regulators around the world. Some countries have banned the government from using the artificial intelligence technology of this Chinese startup.

Privacy regulators in countries such as Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands have expressed concerns about the data collection practices of the DeepSeek application.

In the United States, some federal agencies have instructed their employees not to access DeepSeek, and hundreds of companies have asked their corporate cybersecurity companies such as Netskope and Armis to block access to the application, according to Bloomberg.

The privacy policy of the DeepSeek application reads: We store the information we collect on secure servers located in China.

But these data protection issues may only exist in DeepSeek's AI application layer, because running certain AI models locally reportedly ensures that the company does not obtain sensitive user data.

Therefore, the Indian government plans to host DeepSeek's AI models on local servers.

India's Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said: DeepSeek's data privacy issues can be resolved by hosting the open-source model on Indian servers.

Countries banning DeepSeek AI

Italy:

Last month, Italy became one of the first countries to ban DeepSeek AI. The AI ​​chatbot app, powered by its underlying AI models V3 and R1, has reportedly disappeared from the country's app stores. This came a few days after the country's privacy regulator sought information on how the Chinese AI startup handles user data. It gave DeepSeek 20 days to respond to the notice.

The Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) reportedly acted on a complaint filed by consumer union group Euroconsumers.

Australia:

Government workers in Australia have been banned from installing and using DeepSeek's AI app due to security concerns. The Minister of Home Affairs has mandated that all government agencies ban the use or installation of DeepSeek products, apps and web services, and remove all existing DeepSeek products, apps and web services from all Australian government systems and devices.

The ban does not apply to private citizens in the country, Reuters reported.

South Korea:

South Korea's Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday that it had banned DeepSeek from accessing its networked military computers.  

South Korean ministries and police said on Thursday they had blocked work computers from accessing DeepSeek after the Chinese artificial intelligence startup did not respond to a request from the data regulator on how it manages user information, according to South Korean media reports.

This comes after South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) asked the Chinese AI startup to clarify its management of user information.

Government agencies banned from using DeepSeek AI

Indian Finance Ministry:

The Indian Finance Ministry has warned its employees not to use AI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, citing data protection risks to government confidential information.

According to Reuters, an internal announcement issued by the Indian Finance Ministry on January 29 stated: AI tools and AI applications (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek, etc.) in office computers and devices have been identified as posing risks to the confidentiality of (government) data and documents.  

US Congress:

Members of the US Congress have been warned not to use DeepSeek technology. The chief administrative officer of the US House of Representatives wrote in a notice: Threat actors have been using DeepSeek to spread malware and infect devices. To mitigate these risks, the House has taken security measures to limit the functionality of DeepSeek on all House-issued devices.

In addition, congressional staff have been banned from installing the DeepSeek application on their official devices.

US Navy:

The US Navy has instructed its members not to use DeepSeek's applications or artificial intelligence technology in any way, as its origin and use may have security and ethical issues, according to CNBC.

Members must not use DeepSeek's artificial intelligence for any work-related tasks or personal use, and not download, install or use DeepSeek AI, the US Navy said in an internal email.

Pentagon:

The Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, has banned access to DeepSeek technology since January, according to Bloomberg. The restrictions were reportedly implemented after Defense Department officials expressed concerns about unauthorized use of the DeepSeek application by Pentagon staff.

Department of Defense personnel can, however, access DeepSeek's artificial intelligence through an authorized platform called Ask Sage, which does not store data on servers in China.

NASA: DeepSeek and its products and services are not authorized for use with NASA data and information or government-issued devices and networks. [Employees are not authorized] to access DeepSeek through NASA equipment and agency-managed network connections.

An internal memo from the US space agency reads, according to CNBC.

Texas: Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an order banning the use of artificial intelligence software developed by DeepSeek and other Chinese companies on government-issued devices in the state.

"The State of Texas will not allow the infiltration of our state's critical infrastructure through data-collecting artificial intelligence and social media applications. The State of Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign powers," Abbott said.

Why Banning DeepSeek Is Harder Than It Looks

If users are concerned about the privacy risks associated with DeepSeek's AI chatbot application, they can download and run DeepSeek's open-source AI models locally on their computers to ensure their interactions are private.

If they lack the required hardware and computing power, they can access DeepSeek's AI chatbots through platforms such as Perplexity, which reportedly stores user data on servers located in the United States and Europe.

As for concerns among U.S. businesses and authorities that DeepSeek's latest AI models were developed with the help of competitors such as ChatGPT, Reuters reported that it may be difficult to stop the startup from doing so because it is difficult to detect small amounts of traffic to popular products such as ChatGPT that have millions of users.

What is China's comment?

China condemned the move and made clear its opposition to the politicization of economic, trade and technology issues.

China criticized Australia for banning the use of Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek on government devices due to security concerns.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: The Chinese government... has never and will never ask companies or individuals to illegally collect or store data.