Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a ban on Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek for government-issued devices, becoming the first state to restrict the popular chatbot in such a manner.
The governor also prohibited popular Chinese-owned social media apps Xiaohongshu, or what some are calling RedNote, and Lemon8 from all state-issued devices.
“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. “Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
AI startup DeepSeek has rocked markets upon demonstrating its capacity to compete with industry leader OpenAI.
U.S. also users flocked to Xiaohongshu in the days leading up to TikTok’s short-lived ban. It’s a popular app in China and surrounding countries — such as Malaysia and Taiwan — with roughly 300 million active users that many Americans were using as a replacement doe TikTok, and as a form of protest against the ban.
Texas, along with many other states and the federal government, has banned TikTok on government devices.
