21 State Attorneys General Urge Congress to Ban DeepSeek on All Government Devices

Authored by Dave Malyon via The Epoch Times,

Attorneys general from 21 states penned a missive to Congress on March 6, calling on lawmakers to pass the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, citing concerns that American users’ data may fall into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“China is a clear and present danger to the United States,” the 21 attorneys general wrote in the letter addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“DeepSeek appears to be another tool for Chinese spies to attack America’s national security,” the attorneys general wrote.

“Given the Chinese desire to steal America’s secrets and the ability of DeepSeek to carry out this theft, Congress should quickly pass legislation to ban DeepSeek on government devices.”

The legislation was introduced to the House on Feb. 6.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who led the effort, said in a statement accompanying the letter that DeepSeek should be banned from government devices because it is a “Trojan horse” sent by the CCP to spy on America.

“I have already banned the platform at the Montana Department of Justice because we know DeepSeek is tracking users’ search history, IP addresses, and keystroke patterns then giving that information to the Chinese government,” Knudsen said in a March 6 statement.

Knudsen pointed to a Pew Research Center survey released in July 2023, showing half of the surveyed Americans view communist China as America’s biggest threat.

He referred to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments during his Senate confirmation hearing in January that the Chinese communist regime is “the most potent and dangerous, near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”

The letter was co-signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and  Virginia.

Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Netherlands have already blocked the chatbot on devices linked to their administrative functions, while Italy has banned it from the country completely.

Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) sent a letter to more than 40 governors earlier this month, urging them to ban DeepSeek on their state government devices.

LaHood and Gottheimer said that “DeepSeek’s code is directly linked to the [CCP], with the ability to share user data with China Mobile” and that China Mobile, by extension, is state-owned.

It called on state governments to follow in the footsteps of Texas, New York, and Virginia and “ban the use and download of DeepSeek from all state government-affiliated devices and networks.”

DeepSeek’s user policy confirms it collects information. 

It specifies that its users’ registration details, such as dates of birth and email addresses, along with text and audio files, user history on the platform, and keystroke patterns, are all stored on servers in China.

It goes a step further, saying it will share this information with law enforcement agencies and copyright holders in accordance with its legal obligations where necessary, in a manner consistent with “internationally recognized standards.”

However, Chinese law compels companies in-country to cooperate with the state’s intelligence efforts.

Article 7 of China’s 2018 National Intelligence Law states: “All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.”

On Feb. 19, South Korea learned that DeepSeek had shared information with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

A South Korean official told The Epoch Times that “there was data exchange with an IP address related to ByteDance.” The exchange breached a South Korean law that requires companies to get permission before sharing user data with third parties.

The official also noted that DeepSeek was not completely forthcoming about its practices leading up to the infraction—which resulted in the bot being withdrawn from app stores and banned on government devices and networks.