Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday barred state employees from downloading Chinese social media and artificial intelligence apps onto government devices.
The prohibition includes DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI tool that has disrupted the AI chatbot ecosystem and quickly become the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store. Several federal agencies, including NASA, have banned DeepSeek, as have Italian authorities.
“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 announcing the ban.
Other apps and platforms included in the Texas ban include RedNote, Webull, Tiger Brokers, Moomoo and Lemon8.
The prohibition expands on Abbott’s December 2022 edict barring TikTok from state devices and computers. Multiple states adopted similar prohibitions due to concerns that the popular video-sharing app could be vulnerable to Chinese spying. The Texas ban was later codified in law.
Read more: TikTok becomes GOP’s next front in rhetorical war on China
American policymakers increasingly view Chinese technology as a threat to national security because of the potential for the Chinese Communist Party to influence content or demand U.S. users’ data from companies.
That alarm is what led Congress to pass a law last year banning TikTok unless it was sold to a non-Chinese company. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the law but President Trump has delayed its enforcement.
New York Assemblymember Alex Bores (D), who has a degree in computer science and expertise in cybersecurity, said Friday that a ban on putting Chinese apps such as DeepSeek on state-owned devices is “a very reasonable cybersecurity stance.”
“You should have a higher level of scrutiny with government devices and a higher level of scrutiny with software from China,” Bores told Pluribus News.
Abbott’s order comes two months after he issued four directives in response to concerns about China infiltrating state systems, including a requirement that state agencies divest from China.
DeepSeek’s arrival has in recent days dramatically reshuffled the AI arms race between the U.S. and China. The powerful chatbot can compete with U.S. models such as ChatGPT but was reportedly built for a much lower cost and with less computing power.
DeepSeek’s debut has both raised national security concerns and amplified worry that China could eclipse the U.S. in AI technology.