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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Robert Booth, Jakub Krupa and Angela Giuffrida in Rome

DeepSeek blocked from some app stores in Italy amid questions on data use

DeepSeek Logo on a phone and in the background
The UK government has said it is up to citizens if they want to use DeepSeek, with officials monitoring any potential national security threat. Photograph: Faisal Bashir/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

The Chinese AI platform DeepSeek has become unavailable for download from some app stores in Italy as regulators in Rome and in Ireland demanded answers from the company about its handling of citizens’ data.

Amid growing concern on Wednesday about how data harvested by the new chatbot could be used by the Chinese government, the app disappeared from the Apple and Google app stores in Italy with customers seeing messages that said it was “currently not available in the country or area you are in” for Apple and the download “was not supported” for Google, Reuters reported.

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