Microsoft President Announces Ban on DeepSeek App for Employees

In a Senate hearing today, Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith announced that employees are banned from using DeepSeek due to concerns related to data security and potential propaganda.

“At Microsoft, we do not allow our employees to use the DeepSeek application,” Smith stated, noting its accessibility on both desktop and mobile devices.

He further explained that Microsoft has opted not to feature DeepSeek in its app store for the same reasons.

While various organizations and even some nations have imposed restrictions on DeepSeek, this is the first time Microsoft has publicly acknowledged such a prohibition.

Smith pointed out that the restriction stems from worries about data potentially being stored in China and that responses produced by DeepSeek might be influenced by “Chinese propaganda.”

According to DeepSeek’s privacy policy, user data is saved on servers located in China, rendering it subject to local laws that mandate compliance with government intelligence agencies. The platform also enforces strict censorship on subjects considered sensitive by Chinese authorities.

Despite Smith’s critical remarks regarding DeepSeek, shortly after it captured significant attention earlier this year, Microsoft made DeepSeek’s R1 model available on its Azure cloud service.

However, this does not equate to granting access to DeepSeek’s actual chatbot application. Since DeepSeek is open source, it can be downloaded, hosted on personal servers, and provided to users without sending data back to China.

Nonetheless, this does not negate other potential risks, such as the model’s capacity to spread propaganda or generate insecure code.

During the Senate hearing, Smith indicated that Microsoft has accessed DeepSeek’s AI model and “modified” it to remove “harmful side effects.” However, Microsoft did not elaborate on the specific modifications made, suggesting inquiries be directed to Smith’s comments.

In its initial launch of DeepSeek on Azure, Microsoft asserted that the app underwent “rigorous red teaming and safety assessments” before its release.

It’s important to note that DeepSeek’s application competes directly with Microsoft’s own Copilot search chat application, yet Microsoft does not restrict all competing chat applications from its Windows app store.

For instance, Perplexity is available in the Windows app store, while apps from Microsoft’s primary competitor, Google, including the Chrome browser and the Gemini chatbot, were not found in our web store search.