South Korea Bans DeepSeek Over Regulatory Concerns

The South Korean government has officially banned DeepSeek, citing regulatory and security concerns. The move sparks discussions on AI governance.

South Korea’s national data protection authority has declared a “temporary” halt to the highly popular DeepSeek AI service in the country. This suspension will remain in place until officials conclude their review of the Chinese startup’s data collection practices and introduce necessary “improvements and remedies.”

According to Yonhap, the Personal Information Protection Commission announced on Monday that DeepSeek’s applications had been taken down from local app stores, and access to its web service was halted at 6 PM on Saturday. The restriction will continue until the company implements changes to ensure “compliance” with local regulations.

The app is still accessible to users who had previously downloaded it; however, Seoul’s data watchdog has “strongly advised” these users to “exercise caution when using the service” until the final results of the investigation are revealed.

In January, the Hangzhou-based company DeepSeek sparked a technological ‘arms race’ by launching an open-source version of its reasoning AI model, R1. The company claims this model was developed at a substantially lower cost while offering performance that rivals competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

In contrast to its US competitor that provides advanced features via a subscription model, DeepSeek-R1 is completely free. This accessibility has driven it to the top of Apple’s App Store and Google Play rankings. However, its web-based service has occasionally experienced outages due to high demand.

DeepSeek also enables users to freely download its models and operate them on their servers, supporting the open-source community’s conviction that AI should be accessible to all. This strategy contrasts with Western competitors, who frequently focus on proprietary models and limited access.

Nevertheless, when users access the service via the company’s website or apps, their data inevitably passes through DeepSeek’s servers situated in China. This has sparked concerns regarding data collection practices. As a result, numerous government agencies and businesses both in the US and globally have taken steps to limit access to DeepSeek. Recently, Italy became the first country to implement a nationwide restriction while an investigation is underway.

In the previous month, South Korea’s regulatory body officially asked DeepSeek to provide clarification regarding its data collection and management practices. The company was mandated to designate a local representative in Seoul and actively collaborate with the commission.