News Desk
SEOUL, South Korea — A Chinese artificial intelligence app called DeepSeek is at the center of a growing storm, accused of vacuuming up user data and feeding it straight to servers in China, where Beijing’s prying eyes could be waiting. South Korea slapped a ban on new downloads this month after its privacy watchdog exposed the app’s overreach, amplifying fears that China is using cheap, flashy tech to tighten its grip on global influence.
Developed by a Hangzhou startup, DeepSeek hit the market boasting it could rival Western AI giants like ChatGPT on a shoestring budget—less than $6 million, using older Nvidia chips. That claim alone rattled investors and sent tech stocks tumbling, but it’s the app’s shady data habits that have governments on edge. South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission found DeepSeek slurping up everything from chat histories to typing quirks and device info, then shipping it all to China with little transparency about who’s peeking at it next—third parties or, worse, the Chinese government, which can legally demand access under national security laws.
The backlash didn’t stop at privacy. South Korea’s spy agency accused the app of recycling user inputs to juice its own smarts and flagged it for flip-flopping on touchy topics—like claiming kimchi as Chinese in one language and Korean in another, a move that stoked cultural outrage here. It’s the kind of detail that makes critics wonder if DeepSeek’s just a tool for Beijing to push its agenda, wrapped up in a slick AI package.
China’s not taking it lying down. Its Foreign Ministry shot back, calling the crackdown “discriminatory” and accusing countries of ganging up to hobble Chinese tech. DeepSeek, meanwhile, paused downloads in South Korea, promising fixes, but didn’t outright deny the charges. Its privacy policy admits all data lands in China, and its founder, Liang Wenfeng—tied to a murky hedge fund called High-Flyer—only deepens the suspicion that Beijing’s fingerprints are all over this.
The app’s woes aren’t limited to South Korea. Australia’s flagged it, the U.S. has banned it from government devices, and Italy’s locked it out until it comes clean on data handling. The common thread? A gnawing worry that China’s using DeepSeek to siphon off intel or tweak narratives, all while dodging hard proof of state meddling.
For now, DeepSeek’s a lightning rod in the tech cold war—cheap enough to hook millions, creepy enough to spook nations. South Korea’s ban is just the latest sign that distrust of China’s digital ambitions is hitting a boiling point, and Beijing’s denials aren’t cooling things off.
