Microsoft employees are not allowed to use DeepSeek: Here’s why

Microsoft has officially said that its employees are not allowed to use the DeepSeek app. This might sound surprising, but there’s a good reason behind it, and it all boils down to security and concerns about possible propaganda.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chairman and president, explained this in a Senate hearing. He made it clear that the company does not allow its employees to use the DeepSeek app, whether on desktop or mobile. And, on top of that, Microsoft hasn’t even put the app on its own store. So, there’s a strong stance against it from the company.

Now, you might wonder why. Well, it turns out that the issue is related to where DeepSeek stores its user data. The app stores everything on servers in China, which means the data is subject to Chinese laws. These laws can require companies to hand over information to Chinese authorities if they ask. Plus, DeepSeek is known to censor certain topics, especially ones that the Chinese government finds sensitive. This raised big red flags for Microsoft.

Even though Microsoft has these concerns about DeepSeek, here’s the twist: earlier this year, the company did offer DeepSeek’s R1 model on its Azure cloud service. It wasn’t a full ban, just restrictions on its employees using the app.