DeepSeek bans being issued in growing number of countries

The Czech Republic is the latest in a growing number of countries to ban China’s ChatGPT rival DeepSeek across all government agencies and institutions, citing national security concerns.

The Chinese AI start-up made waves at the start of 2025 when it knocked ChatGPT off the top spot in Apple’s ranking of most downloaded apps. However security experts have been warning about the app’s links to China and the implications for personal data.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced the decision after a Cabinet meeting in Prague on Wednesday, saying it would strengthen the country’s cybersecurity.

It follows an assessment by the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, which warned that the Chinese state could potentially access sensitive data stored or processed on servers in China.

Australia, Taiwan, Italy, Denmark and South Korea have also issued partial or full bans on the app, while in the United States, several federal agencies, including NASA and the Department of Defense, prohibit the use of the DeepSeek app. Data protection officials in Germany are meanwhile pushing for a ban.

After DeepSeek became the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Store platform in the US, knocking rival ChatGPT from OpenAI into second place, share prices of US tech companies fell sharply, amid fears that heavy investments in OpenAI might not pay off.

The natural language chatbot can handle many of the same requests as ChatGPT – create recipes based on what’s in your fridge, answer an essay question, discuss career guidance.

But what makes the AI model of Chinese start-up DeepSeek different is that it’s said to be cost-efficient and require fewer AI chips than the large AI models of established providers.

This has also made DeepSeek a serious competitor in a sector that prompted tech companies to make massive investments in nuclear energy to power technology that requires energy levels rivalling those of small countries.

Users were quick to call out the app’s pro-China bias. When the chatbot is asked to discuss Chinese politics, it dodges questions and also declines to talk about the history of Tiananmen Square.

DeepSeek was developed by a relatively unknown start-up from eastern China’s tech hub of Hangzhou. However, the release of its V3 generation in January surprised many in the industry with its ability to match the output of Western rivals, but notably also its ability to do so with significantly fewer resources. Downloads spiked after the release of the company’s new R1 reasoning model on January 20.