The CCP will ‘exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,’ they warned.
U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) sent a letter to more than 40 state governors on March 3, urging them to ban DeepSeek from government-issued devices because of concerns that the Chinese chatbot collects sensitive data.
In a letter to 47 governors and the mayor of Washington, the lawmakers
warned that DeepSeek is designed to harvest user information, citing risks to data privacy and cybersecurity, and potential access to government records.
The lawmakers said recent research shows that DeepSeek’s code has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and can share user data with China Mobile.
China Mobile—a state-owned telecommunications company—is closely affiliated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The letter states that the Federal Communications Commission has banned its use in the United States.
The letter warns that DeepSeek users may unwittingly expose sensitive data—such as contracts, documents, and financial records—to China, which would be “an enormous asset to the CCP”—a “known foreign adversary.”
“The CCP 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,” the letter warns.
This development follows Gottheimer and LaHood’s introduction on Feb. 6 of
legislation dubbed the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act,” which aims to “prohibit the use of DeepSeek by federal employees on government-issued devices.”
“The technology race with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not one the United States can afford to lose,” LaHood said in a
statement.
Gottheimer cited evidence that the CCP is “using DeepSeek to steal the sensitive data of U.S. citizens” and called it “a five alarm national security fire,” according to the statement.
The recent
letter also identifies Huawei, a multinational tech company producing smart devices, laptops, and other telecom equipment, and ByteDance, which owns TikTok, as direct threats to national security.
It said that Congress aims to “prioritize the safety and security of state-operated devices, especially those that are used to access or store confidential information.”
Addressing governors, the two lawmakers wrote, “We implore you to follow suit and ban the use and download of DeepSeek from all state government-affiliated devices and networks.”
“By enacting these bans,” the Gottheimer–LaHood letter concludes, “you would send a clear message that your state remains committed to maintaining the highest level of security and preventing one of our greatest adversaries from accessing sensitive state, federal, and personal information.”
Some US States, Other Countries Take Action Against DeepSeek
On Jan. 31, Texas was the first state to ban DeepSeek from government networks and devices, followed by
New York and Virginia.
Florida is the latest to follow suit. The Sunshine State’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, announced on Feb. 20 that DeepSeek would no longer be allowed in the state’s Department of Financial Services.
A
letter from Gottheimer and LaHood obtained by The Epoch Times was sent to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggesting that other aspects of his government have yet to adopt the restrictions.
According to the letter, Congress considers the United States a leader in identifying threats posed by DeepSeek and other Chinese tech digital threats.
The United States is not the only country to act against DeepSeek.
The Epoch Times
reported on Feb. 19 that South Korea had suspended DeepSeek and removed it from app stores after the chatbot was found to have shared information with an IP address affiliated with ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company of Chinese app TikTok.
In early February, the Australian secretary of home affairs
announced similar measures, citing “risk and threat information.”
The country’s Protective Security Policy Framework
website called on “Australian Government entities to prevent the use or installation of DeepSeek products, applications and web services and where found remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services from all Australian Government systems and devices.”
The Netherlands’ digital security watchdog last month also ordered all civil servants to stop using the application and issued a warning to the general population.
“If, as a user in the Netherlands, you upload a document containing personal information, such as a CV, to the DeepSeek chatbot, that personal data may be stored on a server in China,” Aleid Wolfsen, chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, said in a statement.
“This also applies to all the questions you enter into the chatbot. Be aware of this. The system thrives on the information you provide. Understand that you might even—whether intentionally or unintentionally—upload information about other people into that chatbot.”
Canada moved in the same direction on Feb. 6, citing “privacy concerns associated with the inappropriate collection and retention of sensitive personal information,” according to an email obtained by The Epoch Times from the country’s chief information officer.
It went on to
say that the move was “precautionary” and intended to “protect government networks and data,“ and ”recommended that departments and agencies restrict the use of the DeepSeek chatbot on government devices.”
Italy
blocked the artificial intelligence engine in January. Leading up to the decision, the Italian independent administrative authority on data privacy, Garante, contacted
DeepSeek with its concerns about its handling of user information. The regulator determined that DeepSeek’s response was inadequate because its operators argued that because the company was not based in the European Union the bloc’s laws did not apply to it.
