Report: Commerce Department Bans Use of DeepSeek on Government Devices

The Department of Commerce has reportedly banned the use of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence (AI) model on government-furnished equipment, citing concerns about the Chinese company gaining access to sensitive information.

The Department sent a mass email to staffers telling them not to download, view or access any mobile apps, desktop apps or websites tied to DeepSeek, Reuters reported Monday (March 17).

The Commerce Department did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Other U.S. officials, members of Congress and states have expressed similar concerns about DeepSeek, according to the report. New York, Virginia and Texas have banned DeepSeek from government devices.

Two U.S. lawmakers — Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Illinois, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-New Jersey — introduced legislation to outlaw DeepSeek on government devices on Feb. 6.

In a Feb. 6 press release, the lawmakers cited research that found that DeepSeek’s code is directly linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that it can share user data with Chinese-government owned China Mobile, which has been banned for use in the U.S.

Other countries have banned or considered banning DeepSeek on government devices. Australia, Italy and Taiwan have already implemented a ban, and France, South Korea, Ireland and Belgium are considering doing so, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 6.

South Korea’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said that DeepSeek differs from other generative AI platforms by not only storing user chat records but also collecting keyboard input patterns, which could potentially identify individuals, Reuters reported in February. The agency warned that this data is transmitted to Chinese servers linked to companies such as volceapplog.com.

Cybersecurity company AppSOC said Feb. 11 that its testing unearthed series threats from DeepSeek’s AI model, including making it easy to for users to generate viruses and malware, producing hallucinations and generating “responses with toxic or harmful language, indicating poor safeguards.”

“These issues collectively led AppSOC researchers to issue a stark warning: DeepSeek R-1 should not be deployed for any enterprise use cases, especially those involving sensitive data or intellectual property,” AppSOC Co-founder and Chief Scientist Mali Gorantla wrote in a Feb. 11 blog post.