Berlin Data Protection Commissioner Meike Kamp has issued an official announcement calling on United States-based tech giants Google and Apple to pull the China-based AI chatbot DeepSeek from official app stores.
"DeepSeek has not been able to convincingly prove to my authority that data of German users in China is protected at a level equivalent to that of the European Union," Kamp said in a statement on the decision.
"Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data in the sphere of influence of Chinese companies. In addition, DeepSeek's users in China do not have enforceable rights and effective remedies as guaranteed in the European Union."
DeepSeek is a relative newcomer to the artificial intelligence scene, having only launched in January of this year. The tech was a significant shake-up to the market because of DeepSeek AI's lower operating cost, especially in comparison to US-based competition like ChatGPT from OpenAI and Microsoft's Copilot.
Reuters reported that DeepSeek has been aiding China's military and intelligence operations. "This effort goes above and beyond open-source access to DeepSeek's AI models," an anonymous US State Department official told Reuters, confirming that DeepSeek shares user information and statistics with China's surveillance network.
In the official statement, Kamp confirmed that the data protection authority had requested both Google and Apple remove the DeepSeek app from digital storefronts, calling the app "illegal content."
While Google did confirm to Reuters that it had received the request and was investigating, Apple and DeepSeek refused to comment on the German data protection agency's actions.
Germany would not be the first nation to block DeepSeek AI on the grounds that it violates data privacy legislation.
Italian data protection watchdogs motioned to ban the chatbot in January, shortly after it was unveiled globally. The Garante, Italy's data protection authority, had questioned DeepSeek on just what personal data the app collects, the purpose of that collection, the legal grounds for collecting the information, and whether the data was stored in China.
The agency then ordered the service to be banned after declaring that the Chinese companies behind the chatbot provided insufficient information.
Watchdogs in Ireland, France, and the Netherlands have raised similar concerns over DeepSeek's data collection practices, and several nations, including the United States, have moved to restrict or prohibit the use of DeepSeek AI by government officials.
In June, a bipartisan collective of lawmakers led by Representative John Moolenaar and Raja Krishnamoorthi in the U.S. introduced the "No Adversarial AI Act."
This piece of legislation is aimed at preventing AI tools developed in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from being used in the U.S. Government. Researchers have expressed concern that DeepSeek's AI chatbot could be used to generate malicious code, including ransomware and keyloggers.
"From IP theft and chip smuggling to embedding AI in surveillance and military platforms, the Chinese Communist Party is racing to weaponize this technology. We must draw a clear line: US government systems cannot be powered by tools built to serve authoritarian interests," Representative Moolenaar said of the bill.
DeepSeek's regulatory woes have also resulted in suspicion being cast on NVIDIA. Its advanced H100 chips are tightly regulated under export controls, as the United States holds on to concerns that China would use the tech to advance its military capabilities.
DeepSeek has been accused of using shell companies throughout Southeast Asia to evade those export controls, which may have aided in the Chinese company's ability to produce such an advanced AI tool so quickly. A spokesman for Nvidia told Reuters that DeepSeek was using "lawfully acquired" H800 products, not the more advanced H100 chips.
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