Texas Bans DeepSeek, Other Chinese Apps

The US state of Texas has banned Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek from government-issued devices, along with other popular Chinese apps, becoming the first state to do so.

DeepSeek came into the spotlight last week after it gained popularity with users in the US and other Western countries, showing the ability of its low-cost AI models to compete with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and, in the process, sending world markets into a $1 trillion (£800bn) one-day nosedive.

Texas also banned Chinese social media apps Lemon8 and RedNote and stock-trading apps Moomoo, Tiger Brokers and Webull from government gadgets.

“Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors,” said governor Greg Abbott.

‘Security risk’

In a proclamation sent to Texas secretary of state Jane Nelson, Abbott said the apps “pose a security risk to the state of Texas” through their data-collection practices.

TikTok has been banned on government devices in Texas since 2022, with more than 30 other states, as well as various national governments including the UK Parliament also restricting the social media app from government use.

As a short-lived US ban on TikTok approached on 19 January, alternatives including RedNote, a similar short-form video app, gained in popularity.

RedNote is known as Xiaohongshu in China and is popular in countries in the region including Malaysia and Taiwan, with roughly 300 million active users.

TikTok received a 75-day reprieve from being switched off in the US when Donald Trump took office as US president on 20 January, in order to allow negotiations for a sale to continue.

Reports have suggested companies such as Microsoft and Oracle could be interested in forming a deal.

TikTok deadline

In late January a board member of TikTok owner ByteDance said the company was in active talks with the Trump administration over a way of keeping TikTok active in the US without selling it.

The comments by William Ford, an American businessman, were the first by a ByteDance board member following the extension.

They reflect ByteDance’s efforts to maintain services to TikTok’s 170 million US users in the face of a law passed last year that requires the company to divest TikTok’s US operations or be barred from operating the country.

Ford said he was optimistic ByteDance could find a solution that addresses the US’ national security concerns without requiring a sale, according to a report by Chinese magazine Caixin.

US officials have expressed concern that the large amount of data harvested by TikTok could be used by the Chinese government or that China could use TikTok to covertly influence American users.