Lawmakers push to ban DeepSeek from government devices

Lawmakers plan to introduce a bill banning DeepSeek’s chatbot from government devices over security concerns, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The app, now the most downloaded in the US, allegedly hides code that could send user data to China Mobile, a state-owned firm banned in America.

Rep. Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republican, and Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, wrote the legislation to outlaw the app from government-issued devices, citing an analysis by cybersecurity expert Ivan Tsarynny. They say the chatbot collects sensitive data of all US users.

Australia, South Korea and Italy have already blocked DeepSeek from their government systems. Some US agencies and Texas have also banned it. 

Lawmakers previously used similar measures to restrict Chinese ByteDance-owned TikTok from government devices.