DeepSeek has become one of the most downloaded apps worldwide, but some governments have security concerns.
ADVERTISEMENTChinese start-up DeepSeek has gotten the artificial intelligence (AI) world excited and wary, with governments already banning its DeepSeek-R1 frontier reasoning model just a couple of weeks after its launch.
Studies have shown there are concerns over cybersecurity and safety, including DeepSeek-R1’s susceptibility to generating harmful and biased content.
As it is a Chinese company, the country’s law states that any data shared on mobile and web apps can be accessed by Chinese intelligence agencies, which is also generating national security fears.
Here are all the countries that have banned DeepSeek-R1 and those that are looking into the company.
Taiwan
Taiwan banned government agencies from using DeepSeek’s AI model last week, citing security concerns.
The democratically-governed country has been wary of Chinese tech due to Beijing's sovereignty claims.
Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs said on Friday that all government agencies and critical infrastructure should not use DeepSeek because it "endangers national information security".
"DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product," the ministry said in a statement.
"Its operation involves cross-border transmission and information leakage and other information security concerns," the statement added.
The United States
While there has been no nationwide ban, Texas became the first US state to ban DeepSeek on government-issued devices.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state's critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement on January 31.
“Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors”.
The governor also prohibited the Chinese-owned social media apps Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and Lemon8 on all state-issued devices.
The United States Navy also officially banned its members from using DeepSeek, according to CNBC.
An email told members of the navy not to use DeepSeek “for any work-related tasks or personal use,” over “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage”.
ADVERTISEMENTCNBC also reported that NASA had banned DeepSeek’s AI technology from being used by employees and was blocking access from its systems.
A memo quoted by CNBC said: “DeepSeek and its products and services are not authorised for use with NASA’s data and information or on government-issued devices and networks”.
Italy
Italy became the first country to block DeepSeek on January 30.
The country’s data protection authority ordered a block on Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence (the Chinese companies behind the DeepSeek chatbot) to stop processing Italians’ data.
ADVERTISEMENTIt comes after DeepSeek reportedly told the Italian authorities that it would not cooperate with a request for information.
“Contrary to what was found by the authority, the companies have declared that they do not operate in Italy and that European legislation does not apply to them,” the Italian regulator said, which added that it was opening an investigation into the company.
Australia
Australia banned all DeepSeek products from government systems and devices on Tuesday, February 4, according to multiple media reports.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke cited national security risks, saying that the decision was not because of where the app is based but due to the risks to Australia's government and assets.
ADVERTISEMENT“AI is a technology full of potential and opportunity, but the Government will not hesitate to act when our agencies identify a national security risk,” he said.
Which countries are investigating DeepSeek?
So far, the Belgian, Irish, French and South Korean data protection authorities said they had planned to ask DeepSeek how users’ personal information is managed.
