Multiple governments restrict DeepSeek R1 chatbot citing security risks
Multiple governments including Italy, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, and the United States have restricted or blocked the DeepSeek R1 chatbot, citing national security concerns and risks of sensitive data leakage to the Chinese government. The restrictions follow the chatbot's market release and concerns that Chinese law requires companies to comply with government data access requests.
What happened
DeepSeek's R1 chatbot, a Chinese artificial intelligence application, prompted multiple governments to impose restrictions shortly after its market release. Italy initiated an investigation and prohibited DeepSeek from processing Italian users' data. Taiwan authorities banned government officials and critical infrastructure operators from using DeepSeek applications, citing information security risks. Australia, South Korea, and the United States followed with similar restrictions.
South Korean government ministries, including those handling relations with North Korea, blocked DeepSeek access on computers and military PCs. In the United States, Congress members introduced legislation to prevent government device usage of DeepSeek, describing it as a company affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Reported impact
Governments cited national security threats and risks of sensitive information leakage as reasons for the restrictions. According to security experts, Chinese law requires companies to comply with government data access requests, raising concerns that user data could be accessed by Beijing.
Index analysis
DeepSeek's privacy policy includes provisions for transmitting personal data to third parties, similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT terms. The company collects information from keystroke activity, capturing each interactive action a user performs on their keyboard.
Governance controls
China rejected the restrictions as political manipulation of economic and technological matters. Beijing stated it would not require companies to illegally collect or store data.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.