South Korea has banned the Chinese artificial intelligence chatbot DeepSeek AI in the country over data privvacy issues.
According to Al Jazeera, the privacy watchdog of South Korea on Monday, February 17, 2025, announced that it suspended DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot from local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
The Personal Information Protection Commission stated that DeepSeek has accepted its request to suspend downloads of the app in the country, adding that the app became unavailable on app stores on Saturday, February 15, 2025.
The commission said, “To prevent further concerns from spreading, the commission recommended that DeepSeek temporarily suspend its service while making the necessary improvements,” adding that bringing the app with local regulations would “inevitably take a significant amount of time.”
Moreover, despite banning the new downloads of the app, people who already had the app on their phone would be able to access the chatbot.
The government agency also said that the AI app will soon become available for the citizens after making necessary "improvements and remedies" as per the personal data protection laws of South Korea.
Furthermore, the ban came weeks after South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy stopped its employees from using DeepSeek on their devices over security concerns.
