TAIPEI (TVBS News) — A scathing congressional report released Thursday (April 17) accused Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek of funneling American user data to Beijing while systematically censoring content related to Taiwan. The investigation, spearheaded by Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and John Moolenaar from the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, portrays the AI company as a significant security threat.
The report, provocatively titled "Deepseek Unmasked: Exposing the CCP's Latest Tool For Spying, Stealing, and Subverting U.S. Export Control Restrictions," details how the Chinese AI platform allegedly distorts information to mirror Beijing's propaganda narratives. Congressional investigators found that when users inquire about Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), DeepSeek deliberately redirects conversations to non-political subjects — a stark contrast to American AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude, which provide factual responses.
According to congressional investigators, DeepSeek implements a sophisticated dual-layer censorship system that combines automatic content filtering with built-in ideological biases. This approach ensures all AI outputs conform to Chinese Communist Party doctrine and political objectives. The report highlights that Chinese regulations explicitly require AI-generated content to promote "the core ideology of socialism" while maintaining "the correct political direction" and avoiding any criticism of the government. These mandates effectively force companies to build "controllability" into their algorithms.
The congressional report raises alarm that millions of unwitting American users are interacting with what it describes as a CCP-controlled AI system, effectively bringing China's notorious internet censorship—known as the "Great Firewall"—directly into U.S. digital platforms. Representative Moolenaar characterized DeepSeek not merely as a technological tool but as "a weapon belonging to the CCP" designed to monitor Americans and facilitate intellectual property theft. In response to similar concerns, Taiwan's Executive Yuan (行政院), Taiwan's cabinet, has already implemented a ban on DeepSeek AI services to protect sensitive government information. ★
