{"id":69288,"date":"2025-02-12T18:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T23:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=69288"},"modified":"2025-02-14T12:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T17:10:12","slug":"state-deepseek-bans-tiktok-chines-apps-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/state-deepseek-bans-tiktok-chines-apps-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Why state efforts to ban DeepSeek are different from the TikTok bans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order<\/a> banning the use of DeepSeek, the Chinese-owned artificial intelligence application, on state government-owned devices and state-run networks. The move makes Virginia the latest state to take such action, following <\/a>New York<\/a>, North Carolina and Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Endeavors to ban DeepSeek from government-owned devices are beginning to mimic the wave of actions states took to ban TikTok<\/a> from their systems in 2022 and 2023 following fears that app and its connection the People\u2019s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party could be used to collect private data of U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actions eventually were escalated into a nationwide ban on the app for all users, and while the ban was first proposed by President Donald Trump in 2020, a version of the ban was passed by Congress last year under former President Joe Biden. On Jan. 20, Trump ordered a 75-day pause on the ban\u2019s enforcement to determine if he could work out a deal to have ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, divest from the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the state-level efforts to ban DeepSeek from government devices, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Friday introduced federal legislation<\/a> to ban the app on federal government-issued devices, as well, citing \u201cdeeply disturbing evidence\u201d that China is \u201cusing DeepSeek to steal the sensitive data of U.S. citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite similarities to the TikTok bans, Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said there are some key differences between the two and the underlying motivations when it comes to data privacy and security, particularly related to the priorities of the new presidential administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galperin said that while banning an app from government devices may seem novel, it’s actually “incredibly common.” Most software used by governments undergoes heavy scrutiny before it’s allowed on state government devices to limit risk to agencies’ sensitive information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One of the things that governments do all the time is, when they enter into deals with software companies and platforms that are going to be installed on state computers or on devices belonging to people who work for the government and having access to sensitive data, is they usually enter into a sort of memorandum of understanding which limits where that data is stored and how it is stored and what other data is it’s allowed to touch and who’s allowed to see it,” Galperin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the DeepSeek ban also has different implications. While both DeepSeek and Tiktok bans target the Chinese government, a double standard has emerged regarding internal security, she said, pointing to the privacy concerns<\/a> created by the Department of Government Efficiency, the temporary federal organization led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, and its recent unfettered access to systems containing the personal and financial information of millions of Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Similar bans have come from a genuine concern about the privacy and security of U.S. government systems, but I think that the trend of singling out Chinese products is particularly pernicious \u2014 especially while allowing practices that actively endanger U.S. interests and the privacy and security of our very sensitive systems and data. This appears to be unique to the Trump administration,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While noting that a ban on using these kinds apps with security concerns in government is actually “quite reasonable and prudent,” Galperin said this might not be the most efficient use of state government’s attention at the moment. Instead, she said, states should take a more holistic approach to improving data privacy and security \u2014 like Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas did with his DeepSeek ban, which also included social media platform RedNote and other sites affiliated with the People\u2019s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think that you’re getting this kind of action from states precisely because data privacy and security is in such shambles at the federal level right now,” Galperin said. “I don’t think that they should be limiting this entirely to to Chinese apps.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia has become the latest state to ban DeepSeek from government devices. But one expert says this round of Chinese app bans are different than the TikTok bans from 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":69106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24394],"tags":[12,74,3973,5300,23805,24448,25131,25132,25388],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[23807],"class_list":["post-69288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","tag-state-local-news","tag-virginia","tag-state-government","tag-electronic-frontier-foundation","tag-tiktok","tag-tiktok-ban","tag-technology-news","tag-government-news","tag-deepseek","author-kquinlan"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy state efforts to ban DeepSeek are different from the TikTok bans | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Virginia has become the latest state to ban DeepSeek from government devices. 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