South Korea Accuses DeepSeek of Sharing Data with TikTok

South Korea has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with the owner of TikTok in China.

The South Korean data protection regulator told Yonhap News Agency it had confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance.

According to the BBC, South Korea had already removed DeepSeek from app stores over the weekend over data protection concerns.

The Chinese app caused shockwaves in the AI world in January, wiping billions off global stock markets over claims its new model was trained at a much lower cost than US rivals such as ChatGPT.

Since then, multiple countries have warned that user data may not be properly protected, and in February, a US cybersecurity company alleged potential data sharing between DeepSeek and ByteDance.

DeepSeek’s apparent overnight impact saw it shoot to the top of App Store charts in the UK, US and many other countries around the world.

It however sits far below ChatGPT in UK rankings.

In South Korea, it had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from Apple and Google’s App Stores on Saturday evening.

Existing users can still access the app and use it on a web browser.