DeepSeek rapidly gained popularity. This achievement triggered a surge of allegations from Western AI companies claiming that DeepSeek had misappropriated essential data. Shortly thereafter, a larger security concern emerged, as American lawmakers feared that the firm had granted the Chinese government and military access to sensitive user data. Consequently, the U.S. DeepSeek AI bans commenced.
In its April 2025 assessment, Congress’s Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party discovered that “the application extracts data back to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), generates security risks for its users, and utilizes a framework that secretly censors and alters information in accordance with Chinese legislation” and was “developed using appropriated U.S. technology.” As a consequence, multiple state governments opted to prohibit the platform from their governmental computer systems. So far, at least 17 U.S. states have enacted some type of government restriction on DeepSeek, including: Texas, New York, Virginia, Tennessee, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Nevada.
Until now, no regulations prevent individuals or businesses from utilizing DeepSeek on private computer networks. Nevertheless, several federal and military entities have also taken steps to eliminate the application’s use on government systems. Additionally, it is significant to highlight that the United States is not the sole nation alarmed by DeepSeek’s privacy breaches, as numerous European and Asian countries have likewise imposed restrictions on the platform.
