Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order banning the contested artificial intelligence app DeepSeek and the popular TikTok alternative RedNote from government-issued devices, becoming the first state to block the Chinese apps.
The governor’s issue also prohibited Lemon8, another social media app owned by TikTok’s Chinese parent company Bytedance, which many turned to on the eve of TikTok’s temporary shutdown in the United States.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps. Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors,” Abbott said in a statement.
The growing AI platform DeepSeek took the market by storm after it proved to outperform the US’s OpenAI at a much lower cost.
Last week, the app caused tech stocks to dip by $1 trillion, creating panic on Wall Street.
The chatbot has raised security concerns not dissimilar to those that led to TikTok’s ban. The app, which has been downloaded over 2 million times since its debut on Jan. 15, reportedly collects and stores US user data in China.
All companies based in China are required by law to share any data with the Chinese Communist Party government upon request — potentially putting American user data in hands unfriendly to the US.
Others have already started blocking the AI chatbot due to security concerns, including the US Navy.
RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, was the lifeboat for TikTok’s sinking Titanic as the ban loomed in early January. It’s a popular social media app in China and other parts of East Asia, including Malaysia and Taiwan.
TikTok has already been banned on government devices since former President Joe Biden signed an act prohibiting it in Dec. 2022. The app’s future is still shaky following President Trump’s eleventh-hour intervention the day before his inauguration granting ByteDance more time to sell the app.
The popular app was restricted in the United States for mere hours on Jan. 18, randomly shutting down around 10:30 p.m. despite many users believing they had until midnight. It was up again in a little over 12 hours following a night of widespread confusion.
Currently, Microsoft is believed to be a frontrunner for TikTok’s purchase.
With Post wires
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