Delhi HC denies urgent hearing of plea seeking DeepSeek ban: ‘If it’s so harmful…'

The Delhi high court on Tuesday denied a request to hold an urgent hearing regarding a PIL seeking to ban the Chinese AI platform DeepSeek in India, reported news agency ANI.

The high court bench, while hearing an application moved by the petitioner, stated that since users have the choice to simply not use the platform, they did not see the need for an urgent hearing.

Also Read: Which countries have banned DeepSeek AI, the Chinese answer to ChatGPT?

The bench led by the Chief Justice of Delhi also noted that if DeepSeek was such a harmful platform, then users could refrain from using it as they were not under any compulsion to do so.

The matter had earlier been listed for February 20, but due to a lack of time, was shifted to April 16. In an earlier hearing of the case on February 12, the court had called for the Union government's counsel to seek directions on the matter as it required careful consideration.

Also Read: ‘DeepSeek brought me to tears’: Chinese youth turn to AI for emotional therapy

The court had also observed that artificial intelligence could pose a threat, whether it was Chinese or American.

The plea seeking to ban DeepSeek in India was moved by a practicing advocate Bhavna Sharma, who had claimed that several countries had pointed out concerns surrounding DeepSeek's privacy and security practices.

Also Read: Using DeepSeek is a ‘personal choice,’ UK govt says amid South Korea ban: Report

In the petition she claimed that within a month of its launch, several problems were discovered in the AI chatbot DeepSeek, leading to the leak of more than one million pieces of sensitive personal data online, including people's chat history.

The plea also alleges that the Chinese AI platform DeepSeek was involved in unlawful operations.

India's finance ministry has issued an internal directive to government departments, advising them against using AI tools like DeepSeek and ChatGPT on office devices due to potential risks of data leaks as per the plea.

Italy's data protection authority ‘Garante’ has banned DeepSeek for violating privacy laws and the Australian government has also prohibited its use on all government devices due to security risks.

Investigations into DeepSeek are ongoing in Ireland, Belgium, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan, the USA, and France.