Deepseek: After Italy, South Korea also hangs the Chinese chatbot
After Italy a few weeks agoit's South Korea's turn to block Deepseek. The Fresh morning country decided to block downloads from the Chinese chatbot application, due to suspicions weighing on its management of personal data. A decision far from harmless, Deepseek having quickly found its audience in South Korea, with no less than 1.2 million users in the last week of January, according to WiseApp Retail. This rise in power, which places the application just behind Chatgpt in terms of use, has drawn the attention of the South Korean Commission for the Protection of Personal Information (PIPC). After an examination, the organization has pointed out a lack of transparency in data collection and their possible transmission to third parties. In response, the application was removed from the App Store and Google Korean Play at the end of last week.
A temporary suspension
If users who have already installed the application can still access and use it, Nam Seok, director of the PIPC survey division, recommended to uninstall it or, at least, to avoid entering personal data. Deepseek says he wants to collaborate with the local authorities to review his protocols and return as quickly as possible to the market. Before that, some South Korean companies and government agencies had already prohibited the use of application on their networks, as a precaution. As early as January 2025, the PIPC had launched an audit of Deepseek practices. The first conclusions highlighted a lack of clarity as to the sharing of the information collected, thus justifying the suspension.
Fears of all Western people
South Korea is not the only country to question the use of data by Deepseek. The question of the management of sensitive information by Chinese companies fuels a broader debate, while the technological rivalry of the United States and China is intensifying. Beyond the South Korean case, other countries could follow up on and require more guarantees from the great international actors of the AI. France has just set up theInesiaan institute intended to better supervise artificial intelligence services. Other identical initiatives flourish throughout Europe. This is obviously not to the taste of the Trump administration and the Californian pundits of artificial intelligence. Between this pressure and Deepseek's success, regulators should therefore have a lot to do in 2025.
