Bipartisan Bill Would Ban DeepSeek AI On US Government Devices

Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A bipartisan pair of congressmen are introducing a bill to prohibit the use of China’s DeepSeek AI on government-issued devices.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) are expected to introduce the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act” on Feb. 6.

The pair serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and hope the bill will help prevent Americans from sharing sensitive, proprietary information with DeepSeek which could then be stored on servers in China accessible by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” Gottheimer said in a prepared statement.

He added that the CCP could leverage its control over servers in China to steal American contracts, financial records, and other business documents commonly uploaded to DeepSeek’s chatbot.

“We must get to the bottom of DeepSeek’s malign activities. We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security.”

Texas has already banned DeepSeek from government devices in the state, and Taiwan, Italy, and Australia have done the same.

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

DeepSeek has sparked data privacy concerns following the launch of its free open-source AI model in January. The app is controlled by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, according to its privacy policy webpage.

Major security concerns about DeepSeek center on its censorship rules, possible copyright infringement, and compliance with Chinese regulations and laws that compel individuals and companies to cooperate with Chinese authorities in their intelligence work, such as by handing over data collected both inside and outside the country.

To that end, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Jan. 28 that the government is looking into the potential national security implications of the DeepSeek AI app.

Founded in 2023 by Chinese businessman Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek stated the company adheres to Chinese laws and regulations, as well as “socialist core values.” Similarly, social media accounts linked to Chinese state agencies pushed narratives favoring DeepSeek prior to its mass proliferation through the U.S. marketplace earlier this month.

DeepSeek is not the first technology platform to export the CCP’s censorship and revisionist propaganda.

Social media giant TikTok came under fire for the same thing back in 2020, when it was found that the company’s platform suppressed content related to the CCP’s human rights abuses.

Nor is Gottheimer and LaHood’s bill the first legal response to DeepSeek in the U.S. government.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) filed his own Senate initiative in the wake of DeepSeek’s release. That effort aims to stop U.S.–China cooperation on AI development in toto by prohibiting AI products from being exported to or imported from the communist regime. The bill would also ban U.S. companies from investing in Chinese AI development.

Gottheimer and LaHood’s joint statement said that DeepSeek’s code shared user data with China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company that was banned in the United States for its ties to the CCP’s military wing.

“The national security threat that DeepSeek—a CCP-affiliated company—poses to the United States is alarming,” LaHood said.

“DeepSeek’s generative AI program acquires the data of U.S. users and stores the information for unidentified use by the CCP. Under no circumstances can we allow a CCP company to obtain sensitive government or personal data,” he added.