Italy’s data protection authority on Thursday blocked access to the Chinese AI application DeepSeek to protect users' data and announced an investigation into the companies behind the chatbot. The authority,

Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data. DeepSeek could not be accessed on Wednesday in Apple or Google app stores in Italy,

The country’s data watchdog says the firm gave it ‘completely insufficient’ answers to questions about what it does with user information.

DeepSeek, the controversial Chinese AI chatbot, is no longer available for download in Italy and Ireland. Both countries pulled the app from Apple and Google stores on Jan. 29, accusing the company of dodging questions about its handling of personal data and causing fears of Chinese government access to user information.

DeepSeek AI disappears from Italy’s app stores as regulators question its data practices and concerns grow over user privacy.

The DeepSeek AI chatbot app, powered by its foundational AI models such as V3 and R1, has disappeared from app stores in Italy, according to a report by TechCrunch. This comes a day after the European country’s privacy watchdog sought information from the Chinese AI startup regarding its data collection and storage practices.

DeepSeek app has vanished from the Italian App Store and Google Play Store since the country's data watchdog filed a privacy complaint.

Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data. The authority, known as Garante,