HC issues notice to govt on plea to block access to DeepSeek in India
This story was originally published at 19:14 IST on 12 February 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre on a petition seeking to block access to artificial intelligence chatbot DeepSeek in all forms - applications, chat and platform. DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence startup that made headlines worldwide after it topped application download charts. Its latest model DeepSeek R1 rivalled technology OpenAI's ChatGPT in capabilities and costing.
The petitioner, Bhavna Sharma, an advocate, said the DeepSeek platform infringed on the Right to Privacy enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. DeepSeek platform posed instant and emergent threats that were prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the data security of the state and public order, Sharma said.
The DeepSeek’s terms of use and privacy policy failed to protect the Right to Privacy of Indian citizens and did not comply with the key provisions of the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, and Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Sharma said. Globally, multiple countries have raised similar concerns about DeepSeek's privacy and security practices, and Italy's Data Protection Authority has banned DeepSeek on the grounds of violation of privacy law, Sharma said.
Even the finance ministry had internally issued an order directing its departments not to use artificial intelligence tools such as DeepSeek and ChatGPT as they pose risks to the confidentiality of the government data and documents, Sharma said.
The government is empowered under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to block access to information by the public on the grounds of sovereignty and Integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, and public order, Sharma said.
The petitioner sought the government to issue mandatory directions and take appropriate actions for creating awareness regarding DeepSeek's privacy and security concerns and the risks it may pose to the society at large and issue advisory against the misuses of DeepSeek and like artificial intelligence tools. A direction may also be issued to application stores to remove the DeepSeek App from India, the petitioner said. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Saji George Titus
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