In a playbook move reminiscent of the early days of TikTok’s rise to fame in the US and its backlash from Washington lawmakers, New York state has banned government employees from using the Chinese-owned DeepSeek app over security concerns.
New York state government agencies and their employees are now banned from having the OpenAI rival app installed on their work devices until further notice, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Tuesday.
“There are real national security concerns about DeepSeek AI's connection to foreign surveillance and government censorship,” posted New York’s Governor Kathy Hochel on X on Monday.
“I won't let them put New Yorkers' data at risk. We're taking action,” Hochel said.
There are real national security concerns about DeepSeek AI's connection to foreign surveillance and government censorship.
undefined Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February 10, 2025
I won't let them put New Yorkers' data at risk.
We're taking action. https://t.co/WTJiKSc7O0
Governor Hochul directed state government agencies to begin removing the app over the weekend, according to the NY state’s Chief Cyber Officer Colin Ahern.
“We do have high confidence that the reporting that we’re seeing is true, and should be taken very seriously. That’s why the governor is taking new steps today,” Ahern said, the Journal reported.
As part of the ban, NY state employees will be prohibited from downloading the app on all devices and networks managed by the state’s Office of Information Technology Services, the WSJ said.
The ban covers any government-issued device, but does not include state employees’ personal devices.
“There are a number of concerning things with this app and others that we’ve talked about before, so we really want to see fundamental changes and how, in particular, state-sponsored censorship and cyber threats are handled,” Ahern stated.
DeepSeek data concerns
Released on January 10th, DeepSeek quickly surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the iOS App Store in the US and many other countries, with regulators scrambling to react.
“New York State's ban on the AI app DeepSeek highlights a growing challenge in cloud security: the struggle to control where data goes when using SaaS platforms,” said Roei Sherman, Field CTO at Cloud Detection and Response firm Mitiga.
"The core issue is that most organizations don't have adequate monitoring or detection capabilities to track data movement within SaaS applications," Sherman said.
New York's restrictions follow Texas, which was the first state to ban DeepSeek from its municipal agencies last week, along with Chinese-owned TikTok-like replacement apps Lemon8 and RedNote.
Democrats and Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the DeepSeek app from federal devices last Thursday.
The US Navy and NASA have already banned DeepSeek over national security concerns due to the app's access to private data and the fact that all its data is stored solely in China, essentially giving Beijing unfettered access.
Sherman says the concern with DeepSeek, which is said to send data directly to sanctioned Chinese companies, underscores the urgent need for stronger data governance in SaaS environments.
“Without robust controls, organizations are left exposed, relying on reactive measures like bans rather than proactive security strategies,” he explained.
"As organizations increasingly rely on cloud-based applications, they often lack visibility into how and where their data is being transmitted, creating significant security and compliance risks. This leaves businesses vulnerable to data exfiltration, compliance violations, and potential espionage," Sherman said.
Taking a potential federal ban one step further, Republican senator Josh Hawley, without mentioning DeepSeek by name, also proposed a bill last week to prohibit American citizens from intentionally conducting or aiding and abetting in the development of AI within China.
If passed, private citizens could be fined up to $1 million and spend up to 20 years behind bars. Businesses could face possible fines of up to $100 million.
BREAKING: Proposed U.S. Law Could Ban DeepSeek and Other Chinese AI Apps.
undefined DrDémọ́lá (@drdemola01) February 5, 2025
A bill titled undefinedDecoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Actundefined was introduced by Republican Senator Josh Hawley on Wednesday January 29, 2025. pic.twitter.com/dqcuTd5Pll
Meantime, Australia, as well as Italy and Tawain, have also jumped on the ban-wagon citing “unacceptable risk,” while France, South Korea, and Ireland have all launched investigations into DeepSeek and its data collection and storage practices.
DeepSeek-R1 is an open-source reasoning large language model (LLM) developed by the Chinese startup DeepSeek. It is comparable to OpenAI's o1 series, yet costs significantly less to operate, prompting vows from the Sam Altman-run start-up to lower costs by 10x per year.
As of January 31st, 2025, DeepSeek’s R1 was noted outperforming OpenAI’s o1 and Meta’s Llama 3.1-405B.
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