Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith revealed in a Senate hearing on May 8 that the company’s employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek. He highlighted that the ban was due to data security and propaganda concerns.
Despite Smith’s remarks on DeepSeek, the tech company offered up DeepSeek’s R1 model on its Azure cloud service shortly after it went viral earlier this year. The firm argued that that was a bit different from offering DeepSeek’s chatbot app itself.
During the launch of DeepSeek on Azure, Microsoft highlighted that the AI firm underwent rigorous red teaming and safety evaluations before it was put on Azure.
Microsoft bans employees from using DeepSeek
MICROSOFT PRESIDENT BRAD SMITH SAYS COMPANY DOES NOT ALLOW ITS EMPLOYEES TO USE THE DEEPSEEK APP
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) May 8, 2025
In a Senate hearing today, Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith said that the company’s employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek. He highlighted that the ban was due to data security and propaganda concerns.
The firm’s president acknowledged Microsoft hadn’t put DeepSeek in its app store over those concerns, either. It is the first time the tech company has gone public about such a ban, although other firms and even countries have issued restrictions on the AI platform.
“At Microsoft, we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app.”
~ Brad Smith, Vice Chairman and President at Microsoft.
Microsoft’s vice chair also noted that there was a risk that data would be stored in China and that DeepSeek’s answers could be influenced by Chinese propaganda. The AI firm indicates in its privacy policy that it stores user data on Chinese servers. Data stored by Chinese apps is subject to the country’s law, which mandates cooperation with China’s intelligence agencies. The AI platform also censors topics considered sensitive by the country’s government.
The AI company acknowledged that it’s open source, where anybody can download the model, store it on their servers, and offer it to their clients without sending the data back to China. Smith argued that that doesn’t eliminate other risks, such as the model spreading propaganda or generating insecure code.
Microsoft’s president said during the Senate hearing that the company had managed to go inside DeepSeek’s AI model and change it to remove harmful side effects. The tech company did not elaborate further on exactly what it did to the AI model.
Other countries ban DeepSeek
Italy was the first nation to ban DeepSeek following a probe by the country’s privacy watchdog into the AI firm’s handling of personal data. Italy’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) in late January initiated an investigation into DeepSeek’s data collection practices and compliance with the GDPR, the EU law that governs how personal data is retained and processed within its borders.
The DPA gave the AI company 20 days to respond to queries about how the firm stores data and what it uses the data for. DeepSeek argued its apps didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of EU law. Italy’s privacy watchdog disagreed and took measures to remove DeepSeek’s apps from the Apple and Google stores in Italy.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs noted that DeepSeek endangers its national information security. The country also banned government agencies from using the AI platform.
Taiwan’s ministry argued that public sector workers and critical infrastructure facilities were exposed to the risk of cross-border transmission and information leakage by DeepSeek’s technology. The country said the ban applied to employees of government agencies as well as public schools and state-owned enterprises.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott also banned software from DeepSeek and other Chinese companies from government-issued devices in the U.S. He stated that the state will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate its critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps.
It was reported that the U.S. Navy instructed its members not to use DeepSeek apps or technology. In late January, the Navy sent an email prohibiting service members from using the AI firm’s products due to potential security and ethical concerns associated with the Tech’s origin and usage.
NASA has also banned employees from using the China-based AI platform through a memo from the agency’s chief AI officer informing personnel that DeepSeek’s servers operate outside the U.S., raising national security concerns. It was also reported that the Pentagon blocked access to DeepSeek technologies, but not before some staff accessed them.
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