Following Italy, Texas Governor Bans DeepSeek AI, Other Chinese Apps
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) on Friday issued a ban against using social media apps and artificial intelligence affiliated with the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party on government-issued devices.
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"Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps," said Abbott. "To achieve that mission, I ordered Texas state agencies to ban Chinese government-based AI and social media apps from all state-issued devices. State agencies and employees responsible for handling critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Platforms, technologies and applications including RedNote, DeepSeek and Tiger Brokers were added to the state’s prohibited list. The Texas Department of Public Safety and Department of Information Resources compiled the list, Abbott said. State employees and contractors are prohibited from downloading and using items on the list on state-owned devices or personal devices used for work, said the release.
The Italian Data Protection Authority restricted DeepSeek and opened an investigation on Thursday.