South Korea has imposed a nationwide suspension on new DeepSeek AI downloads after the company’s mobile apps failed data-protection regulation checks.

South Korea halts DeepSeek AI downloads from February 15, 2025, over privacy violations and security flaws, pending compliance.

Chinese chatbot DeepSeek is temporarily unavailable in app shops in South Korea. South Korean data protection authorities have removed the app as it would violate privacy rules. In fact, DeepSeek is said to have acknowledged disregarding some of the authorities' rules on personal data protection.