Texas Governor Greg Abbott has become the first state leader to ban the Chinese AI company DeepSeek from government-issued devices, marking a significant move to restrict the widely used chatbot. The emerging AI platform has made waves in the AI community after gaining popularity among American users in recent weeks.
Additionally, Abbott has banned the Chinese-owned social media apps Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and Lemon8 from all state-issued devices.
In a statement, Abbott emphasized that Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to compromise the state’s critical infrastructure through data-gathering AI and social media platforms. “Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors,” he said.
The governor’s office has not provided any further comments regarding the decision.
The AI startup DeepSeek has made a significant impact on the market by showcasing its ability to compete with the industry leader, OpenAI.
In the lead-up to TikTok’s brief ban, U.S. users also turned to Xiaohongshu, a popular app in China and nearby countries like Malaysia and Taiwan. With around 300 million active users, Xiaohongshu gained traction in the U.S. as many Americans sought an alternative to TikTok and used it as a form of protest against the ban.
Lemon8, another social media app owned by ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok), also gained popularity in the days leading up to TikTok’s initial ban on January 19.
Texas, along with several other states and the federal government, has banned TikTok from government devices. The app’s future remains uncertain after former President Trump issued an executive order, granting ByteDance more time to sell off TikTok’s U.S. operations.