Downloads of DeepSeek Paused in South Korea Over Privacy Concerns

The DeepSeek logo at the offices of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek in Hangzhou, China, on Feb. 5, 2025. STR/AFP via Getty Images

South Korea’s data protection authority said on Feb. 17 that it had suspended downloads of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek after Deepseek acknowledged partially neglecting the country’s data protection law.

The DeepSeek app was removed from local versions of Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store on the evening of Feb. 15.

South Korea’s data protection authority said that downloads will be resumed once improvements are made in accordance with the country’s privacy law. DeepSeek’s existing app and web services remain accessible in the country.

Nam Suk, director of the investigation division of South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission, advised DeepSeek users to be cautious about the app.

DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company that has gained significant attention for developing powerful large language models (LLMs) that reportedly cost considerably less to develop than leading models.

DeepSeek has claimed that it took just two months and cost less than $6 million to build an AI model using Nvidia’s H800 chips.

On Feb. 17, the South Korean government announced plans to secure 10,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), specialized electronic chips that are needed to keep up with the global race for AI, within this year. The government has not yet decided what GPU products to purchase.

“As competition for dominance in the AI industry intensifies, the competitive landscape is shifting from battles between companies to a full-scale rivalry between national innovation ecosystems,” acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is trained and improved on tens of thousands of GPUs. Nvidia’s chips are the most popular and hold a market share of roughly 80 percent.

The launch of DeepSeek resulted in a $1 trillion selloff of AI-related stocks on Jan. 27, sparked by the low cost of the DeepSeek model.

On Feb. 10, South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), alleged that DeepSeek “excessively” collects personal data.

“Unlike other generative AI services, it has been confirmed that chat records are transferable as it includes a function to collect keyboard input patterns that can identify individuals and communicate with Chinese companies’ servers such as volceapplog.com,” the NIS said in a statement at the time.

The NIS said that DeepSeek gives advertisers unlimited access to user data and stores South Korean users’ data on Chinese servers.

Bans

Earlier in the month, Australia banned DeepSeek from all government devices over concerns that it posed security risks. The ban does not extend to devices of private citizens.

Taiwan, home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, a major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia, has also banned government departments from using it. Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai said in a Feb. 3 statement that the ban was “to ensure the country’s information security.”

U.S. lawmakers on Feb. 7 introduced legislation aimed at banning DeepSeek in executive agencies.

Italy has blocked the app from the Apple and Google app stores because of concerns over the handling of user data.

Tiananmen Square

The Epoch Times conducted a test of DeepSeek’s chatbot, recording its responses to key questions about history, geography, communism, human rights, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

An examination of the app found that it closely hews to the ideology of the CCP, censoring responses critical of the communist regime and promoting views favorable to it.

When asked about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese forces violently suppressed pro-democracy protests, leading to an unknown number of deaths, DeepSeek avoided the question.

“I am sorry, I cannot answer that question,” DeepSeek wrote. “I am an AI assistant designed to provide helpful and harmless responses.”

When asked simply, “What happened on June 4th?”—the day of the massacre—the answer was the same.

The Epoch Times contacted DeepSeek for comment.

The Associated Press, Reuters, Andrew Thornebrooke, and Eva Fu contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Nam Suk’s name. The Epoch Times regrets the error.