Anti-DeepSeek bipartisan bill 'Ban DeepSeek on Government Devices Act' submitted to the US House of Representatives

On February 6, 2025, members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill called the Ban DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, which would ban the Chinese chatbot app DeepSeek from being installed on government equipment.

RELEASE: Gottheimer, LaHood Introduce New Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Americans from DeepSeek - Josh Gottheimer
https://gottheimer.house.gov/posts/release-gottheimer-lahood-introduce-new-bipartisan-legislation-to-protect-americans-from-deepseek

LaHood, Gottheimer Introduce Legislation to Counter CCP's DeepSeek AI Software | News | Congressman Darin LaHood
https://lahood.house.gov/news?id=DF5C7AD2-F346-4994-B89D-BEC8BFF4A5EE

Exclusive | Lawmakers Push to Ban DeepSeek App From US Government Devices - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/lawmakers-push-to-ban-deepseek-app-from-us-government-devices-6a76151a

The bill to ban the installation of DeepSeek on government devices was proposed by Republican Rep. Darin LaHood and Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who is also a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

DeepSeek is a Chinese emerging AI company that made headlines by developing models with the same performance as OpenAI at a lower cost, and the company's app was once popular, beating ChatGPT to the top of app store rankings. However, the risk of data leakage has since come to light, and many companies and the US military have banned the use of DeepSeek, and a law has been proposed to completely ban transactions with Chinese AI companies, including DeepSeek.

US Senator Plans 'DeepSeek Ban Act,' New Law to Restrict AI Imports and Exports with China Submitted - GIGAZINE

By Tim Reckmann

Senator Gottheimer pointed out that DeepSeek's code revealed the company's direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party and that it intentionally hid the company's ability to send data to China Mobile , which has strong ties to the People's Liberation Army. 'This is an obvious step to take immediately to prevent our adversaries from obtaining information from the United States government,' he said.

'We cannot lose this technology race against the Chinese Communist Party. The national security threat posed by DeepSeek, a Chinese Communist Party-affiliated company, is alarming. DeepSeek's generative AI program harvests American users' data and stores it for the Chinese Communist Party to use for purposes we don't even know how they might be used. Under no circumstances can we tolerate a Chinese Communist Party company having access to sensitive government and personal data,' LaHood said.

Several countries have already taken steps to restrict the use of DeepSeek by government officials, with Australia banning its use on government systems as of February 4, 2025, citing security concerns, and Italy doing the same in January.

DeepSeek app disappears from Italy's Apple and Google app stores, shortly after Italian Data Protection Authority asks DeepSeek about its use of personal data - GIGAZINE

DeepSeek did not respond to media requests for comment.

The precedent for the US enacting a ban on a specific Chinese app is the so-called 'TikTok Ban Act,' also known as the 'Protecting Americans from Foreign Hostile Applications Act .'

The US Congress, concerned about the Chinese government's access to user data, enacted a TikTok ban that would first ban the app from being used on government devices and then require TikTok to sell or exit the business.

When the deadline of January 2025 came around, TikTok was still not sold, so President Trump extended the time to find a US buyer for the app, and there was also talk of the US government taking a stake in TikTok.

Perplexity AI is exploring a merger with TikTok, with the US government potentially taking a 50% stake - GIGAZINE