First Country Bans Civil Servants from Using DeepSeek

The Australian government has banned civil servants from using the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, requiring officials to remove the application from all government-issued devices.

This was reported by SBS television channel.

The ban took effect on Tuesday at 22:30 local time (15:30 Baku time - ed.). The Department of Home Affairs issued the corresponding directive. In justifying the decision, it refers to "unacceptable risks to government technology from DeepSeek," which Australian intelligence services allegedly identified.

"Artificial intelligence is a technology of great potential and opportunities. But the government will act without delay when our services identify a national security risk," Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the channel. He emphasized that the country's authorities in such matters are indifferent to which country a product comes from, and are guided only by risks to the government and its facilities.

As the channel notes, the Home Affairs directive came the day after Australian cybersecurity company Cyber CX expressed the opinion that DeepSeek "is almost certainly under direct control of the Chinese government." In addition to the directive for civil servants, the ministry also recommended that ordinary citizens make sure they know "how their data may be used online."

Similar decisions are being made by authorities in other Western countries; particularly, in Italy, the chatbot is completely blocked, in the US Congress members are forbidden to use it, and in Japan, authorities have so far only recommended officials not to use the application.