US lawmakers propose banning DeepSeek citing 'direct ties' to Chinese government

US lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the use of Chinese artificial intelligence program DeepSeek on government devices alleging that the company has “direct ties” to the Chinese government.
This legislation was proposed by Democrat Representative Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey and Republican Representative Darin LaHood from Illinois citing serious data security and national security risks.
The lawmakers further described the AI model as an "alarming threat to US national security."
This move followed a report published on Wednesday by US cybersecurity firm Feroot Security, which claims DeepSeek contains hidden code capable of transmitting user data to China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company.
DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, rocked the AI industry last month with the release of its low-cost, high-quality chatbot, challenging America's dominance in the race for AI development.
"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 statement.
LaHood also called DeepSeek a "CCP-affiliated company" and insisted that "under no circumstances" should it be allowed to access sensitive government or personal data.
South Korean ministries and police agencies also announced LaHoodblocking DeepSeek from government systems after the company failed to respond to an inquiry from a data watchdog about its handling of user information.
Australia has already banned DeepSeek from all government devices following security agency advice, while France and Italy have also raised similar concerns over its data practices.
Meanwhile, Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok is also undergoing a separate legal battle in the US, where lawmakers have ordered its parent company, ByteDance, to divest its American operations or risk a nationwide ban.