(Headline USA) Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a ban on Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek for government-issued devices, becoming the first state to restrict the popular chatbot in such a manner.
The upstart platform sent shockwaves through Wall Street after launching on the Apple app store last week with buzz over its open-source algorithms potentially upending the meteoric rise of U.S.-based companies like Nvidia that have kept their AI research proprietary.
However, it has raised already serious concerns that it may be yet another conduit for Chinese espionage, data-mining and other national security threats.
Abbott also prohibited popular Chinese-owned social media apps Xiaohongshu, or what some are calling RedNote, and Lemon8 from all state-issued devices.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
The governor’s office declined to comment further for this story.
U.S. also users flocked to Xiaohongshu in the days leading up to TikTok’s short-lived ban. It’s a popular app in China and surrounding countries—such as Malaysia and Taiwan—with roughly 300 million active users that many Americans were using as an alternative to TikTok.
Lemon8 is also a Chinese company owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. The social media app also gained traction in the days leading up to the original TikTok ban on Jan. 19.
Texas, along with many other states and the federal government, has banned TikTok on government devices. The app’s future remains in limbo after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to give ByteDance more time to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations.
ByteDance did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
