DeepSeek being blocked in more countries due to security concerns

Italy was the first country to ban the AI chatbot of Chinese startup DeepSeek. More countries are now following suit.

The Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali (GPDP) was the first privacy regulator to send a formal information request to DeepSeek. The privacy supervisor wanted to know what personal data the company collects, from what sources it is gathered, and for what purposes.

DeepSeek responded to this information request by stating it doesn’t operate in Italy and therefore the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) doesn’t apply. The Italian data protection authority (DPA) called this answer “entirely unsatisfactory” and decided to ban DeepSeek to protect the user data of its citizens.

Since then, more governments have decided to ban the AI chatbot from China as well.

On Tuesday, Taiwan prohibited government departments from using DeepSeek “to ensure the country’s information security”, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said during a cabinet meeting.

In addition, Australia banned DeepSeek from all government devices, because the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs felt that the AI chatbot poses a security risk to the country. According to Reuters, all government organizations have received a mandatory direction to “prevent the use or installation of DeepSeek products, applications and web services and where found remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services from all Australian government systems and devices.”

South Korea’s Department of Industry has also blocked DeepSeek from being used by its employees. The Ministry of Defense also blocked access to DeepSeek on its computers that are designated for military use. Lastly, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Department of Finance have restricted access. “Due to multiple technical concerns raised about DeepSeek from home and abroad, we plan to block access for the service on PCs connected to external networks,” a government official told Yon Hap News.

DeepSeek hasn’t been officially banned in the Netherlands. However, civil servants aren’t allowed to install or use the Chinese chatbot on government devices because they are susceptible to espionage. The ban applies to all Departments, Secretary for Digitalization and Kingdom Relations Zsolt Szabó confirms to Dutch news outlet Algemeen Dagblad.

DPAs from Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and South Korea have launched an investigation into DeepSeek’s privacy practices.