iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
US lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban the use of an AI bot made by the Chinese company DeepSeek on government devices, citing national security concerns.
The bill was introduced by Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Darin LaHood, both members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Gottheimer is the Ranking Member, and LaHood chairs the National Security Agency and Cyber Subcommittee.
Gottheimer said new research shows DeepSeek’s code is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and can share user data with China Mobile, a Chinese government-owned company with close ties to the Chinese military. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already banned China Mobile from operating in the United States due to security risks.
The lawmakers said that Americans are unknowingly sharing sensitive information, like contracts, documents, and financial records, with DeepSeek.
Cybersecurity company Feroot Security found that DeepSeek’s AI model has hidden code that can send user data to China Mobile’s online registry, CMPassport.com. This raises privacy and national security concerns, especially since China Mobile was previously removed from the New York Stock Exchange for security reasons.
Gottheimer said, “The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans. Now, we have deeply disturbing evidence that they are using DeepSeek to steal the sensitive data of U.S. citizens. This is a five alarm national security fire.
“We must get to the bottom of DeepSeek’s malign activities. We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security. That’s why I’m introducing this common sense bipartisan legislation with my colleague, Congressman LaHood, to immediately ban DeepSeek from all U.S. government devices. We’ve seen China’s playbook before with TikTok, and we cannot allow it to happen again,” Gottheimer added.
LaHood also expressed concern, saying that DeepSeek’s AI collects data from US users for purposes unknown to the public, which poses a serious threat to national security.
The lawmakers are calling for a ban on DeepSeek across all U.S. government devices to protect American citizens and the country’s security.
