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Agartala, Tripura
South Korea has banned downloading of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot amid a pending review of its privacy standards.
South Korea’s privacy watchdog said on Monday that DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot was removed from the local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play after the Hangzhou-based firm acknowledged that it had failed to comply with personal data protection rules, Al Jazeera reported.
The Personal Information Protection Commission told the news channel that DeepSeek accepted its proposal to suspend downloads of the app.
However, the app is still available to those who have already downloaded it.
“To prevent further concerns from spreading, the commission recommended that DeepSeek temporarily suspend its service while making the necessary improvements,” the commission said, adding that bringing the app in line with local regulations would “inevitably take a significant amount of time”.
Citing security concerns, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, earlier this month, announced a temporary ban on employees who were using DeepSeek on their devices.
Australia and Taiwan have already banned the use of the chatbot on government devices.
In Italy, the country's regulators, had implemented a similar stance against DeepSake by citing surveillance concerns.
In the USA, lawmakers proposed a bill banning DeepSeek from federal devices.
At the US state government level, Texas, Virginia and New York, had earlier introduced similar rules for employees.
DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence company which is based in Hangzhou.
Its AI-powered Chatbot has emerged as one of the most downloaded free app on Apple since its release in the USA this month.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman, who is considered one of the pioneers in the AI industry, earlier described the Chinese chatbot as 'impressive'.
On January 28, Sam, whose ChatGPT had revolutionised the AI industry, wrote on X: "Deepseek's r1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price."
He further said: "We will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor! we will pull up some releases."
