Tech Desk 
Feb 17, 2025
Deepseek logo and the Chinese flag are seen in this illustration taken January 27, 2025. — Reuters
In a bid to better regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in the country, South Korea on Monday suspended new app downloads of the recently launched Chinese AI took DeepSeek.
Regarding what might have triggered the South Korean authorities to crack down on the new yet remarkable AI chatbot, Reuters reported that DeepSeek acknowledged not complying with the agency's rules for protecting users' personal data.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) announced in a press conference that the good news for those attempting workarounds to install DeepSeek on their devices is that DeepSeek's mobile application service will be reinstated once the Chinese AI startup considers the country's privacy law.
While the stopover on new DeepSeek app downloads has been in effect since Saturday, the DeepSeek website is operating as usual in South Korea and is accessible to users.
Last week, the China-based AI firm appointed legal representatives in the country and admitted to having partially failed to take into consideration the country's data protection law, the PIPC noted.
To the dismay of DeepSeek, the regulatory hurdle came on the heels of Italy mandating it to suspend its operations in the country after not abiding by data privacy policies enacted by Italian regulatory bodies.
Reflecting on similar measures taken earlier by South Korean government departments to block DeepSeek, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson remarked that the Chinese government was very considerate of data privacy and security and acted in accordance with the law to protect it.
