These countries have already banned China's DeepSeek: why?

China's artificial intelligence (AI) tool DeepSeek has become one of the most downloaded apps in the world, but some governments are raising concerns about its security. Which countries have already restricted DeepSeek?

Australia

On February 4, Australia banned DeepSeek from all government agencies and systems, citing national security concerns.

Government agencies will reportedly no longer use DeepSeek products, applications, and web services, and will remove previously installed DeepSeek products from any government systems or devices.

It is not yet clear whether DeepSeek will be banned in the public sector, such as schools.

Taiwan

Last week, Taiwan banned government agencies and critical infrastructure from using the DeepSeek AI model, citing national security concerns.

The democratically-run country is wary of Chinese technology due to Beijing’s claims to its sovereignty.

“The DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product. Its operation involves cross-border data transfers, information leakage and other security risks,” Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs said in a statement.

United States

While there has been no blanket ban in the United States, Texas has become the first state to ban DeepSeek from government devices.

“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data collection and social media apps. Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors,” said Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

The governor also banned the Chinese-run social media apps Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and Lemon8 from all state-issued devices.

The U.S. Navy has also officially banned its members from using DeepSeek.

In an email, Navy members were instructed not to use DeepSeek for any work-related tasks or personal use due to potential security and ethical concerns surrounding the model’s origins and use.

NASA is also blocking access to DeepSeek on its systems and has banned its employees from using the app.

Italy

Italy has become the first country to block DeepSeek.

The country’s data protection authority has ordered the blocking of Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence (the Chinese companies behind the DeepSeek chatbot) and the cessation of processing of Italian data.

This comes after DeepSeek informed Italian authorities that it would not comply with a request for information.

“Contrary to what the authority has established, the Chinese companies have claimed that they are not subject to European law,” the Italian regulator said, adding that it has opened an investigation against the company.

EU AI regulatory shortcomings exposed in DeepSeek

A study conducted by INSAIT, a division of Sofia University in Bulgaria, together with Swiss technology company LatticeFlow, has revealed significant compliance deficiencies in DeepSeek’s distilled models under the European Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act).

While these DeepSeek models are good at limiting toxic content, they have serious weaknesses in cybersecurity and bias.

They are characterized by higher risks of “misexecution” and “query leakage,” as well as higher bias than the original models.

The study indicated that DeepSeek poses risks for use in business environments.