TAIPEI: Taiwan on Monday banned government departments from using Chinese startup DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence (AI) service as it was a security risk, toughening language from last week which said it should not be used.
Democratically governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese technology given Beijing’s sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei.
During a cabinet meeting, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said DeepSeek was banned from use in all government agencies “to ensure the country’s information security”, his office said in a statement.
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There were also concerns about censorship on DeepSeek and the risk of data ending up in China, the statement said.
Taiwan’s digital ministry had said on Friday that government departments should not use DeepSeek, but did not specifically say it was banned.
Authorities in South Korea, France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek’s use of personal data.
Last week, the controversial Chinese AI chatbot, DeepSeek, was taken down from the app stores in Ireland and Italy.
Authorities in the European countries raised alarm over the company’s lack of transparency regarding its data handling practices and the potential for Chinese government access to user information.
In Italy, users attempting to download DeepSeek were met with notifications stating that it was ‘currently not available in the country or the area you are in’. Google users received a similar message indicating that downloads were not supported.
Deepseek’s withdrawal follows its rapid ascent to become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s store in the United States and the United Kingdom after its launch.
The chatbot, which offers AI capabilities comparable to ChatGPT at a lower price point, has been linked to significant market fluctuations, including a staggering loss of over $1 trillion in the US stock market in a single day!
Italy’s data protection authority, Garante, issued a formal request for DeepSeek to clarify the types of personal data it collects, where the data is stored and whether any of it is kept in China.
The agency reportedly also initiated an investigation to assess compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and given the Chinese AI firm a 20-day deadline to respond.
Similarly, the Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has also launched an inquiry, seeking detailed information on how DeepSeek manages data related to Irish users. The investigation is focused on potential mishandling of user information and whether data is being transferred to China without adequate safeguards