First country to block DeepSeek on App Store, Google Play

Fears of the Chinese-origin app DeepSeek being banned have become a reality, at least in Italy.

According to information from Italy's data privacy authority, Garante, it has asked DeepSeek to explain how the company handles personal data. DeepSeek and its affiliates have been given 20 days to respond.

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Users in Italy cannot find DeepSeek on the App Store and Google Play.

Following this announcement, DeepSeek was removed from Apple and Google app stores in Italy, but the specific reason for this remains unclear.

Not only Italy, but the US government is also investigating the impact of this application on national security. However, this application has not been removed from the App Store and Google Play in the US as happened in Italy. At present, DeepSeek is still the number one free application on Apple's App Store in the US and many other places around the world.

With its Chinese origins, DeepSeek has attracted the attention of privacy watchdogs. Garante has raised numerous questions regarding its compliance with the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and has asked the company to provide information within three weeks. Without a satisfactory response, DeepSeek could be banned not only in Italy but also in other EU countries.

Many other countries may soon ban DeepSeek as well.

Ireland, for example, is raising similar privacy questions as Italy with DeepSeek. It's worth noting that GDPR applies to all 27 countries in the EU, so non-compliance could have serious consequences for the app.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also investigating whether the DeepSeek R1 AI model was trained on OpenAI's output data. The company also announced that an NPU-optimized version of DeepSeek will soon be available on Copilot+ PCs via Windows 11.

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Lesley Montoya

Update 10 February 2025