New York has banned Chinese AI app DeepSeek from government devices, citing privacy concerns.
“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to protect New Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Governor Kathy Hochul (D) said in a statement. “New York will continue fighting to combat cyber threats, ensure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) was the first U.S. governor to issue a ban on the app for government devices.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” he said upon announcing the ban. “To achieve that mission, I ordered Texas state agencies to ban Chinese government-based AI and social media apps from all state-issued devices. State agencies and employees responsible for handling critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party. Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
Other prohibited apps include RedNote, Webull, Tiger Brokers, Moomoo, and Lemon8.
Last week, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Darin LaHood (R-IL) introduced a bill to prohibit federal employees from using the app on government devices.
“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,” Gootheimer said. “Now, we have deeply disturbing evidence that they are using DeepSeek to steal the sensitive data of U.S. citizens. This is a five alarm national security fire.”
“We must get to the bottom of DeepSeek’s malign activities. We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security,” he stated, adding, “We’ve seen China’s playbook before with TikTok, and we cannot allow it to happen again.”
