Digital Economy

Deepseek, here's how the Privacy Guarantor wants to block it (for real)

The Garante Privacy is trying and will try in various ways to block Deepseek in Italy, the famous Chinese low-cost artificial intelligence. This time it really wants to block it.

14 May 2025

3' min read

The Garante Privacy is trying and will try in various ways to block Deepseek in Italy, the famous Chinese low-cost artificial intelligence. This time it really wants to block it. That's because the Chinese company has only partly obeyed the Garante's request to prevent access to Italians, for violation of our privacy. The app is no longer available on the stores. Those who have already downloaded it, however, can use it. And it is still available on the web.

How to block access from Italy? For the time being, the Garante has tried, without much hope in truth, to obtain the cooperation of internet providers, a bit like what is done to obscure pirated content such as football. A month ago he wrote to Aiip (the association of the main providers, but without the biggies like Tim, WindTre and Fastweb) pointing out the offence. It did not explicitly request blocking - that is, the intervention of providers to prevent Italians from accessing Deepseek resources - nor could it have done so, because there is still no legal basis for this request in Italy. Aiip therefore says it is ready for dialogue, but for now, without an actual obligation to comply, it is not blocking anything.

This, however, is only a first step. And it does not only concern Deepseek. According to what the Garante told Il Sole24Ore, the issue is broader, there is a legislative gap: 'if we cannot block an illicit service in Italy, then it becomes impossible to enforce our measures'. The vacatio legis concerns privacy, of course; other issues - copyright and illegal betting for example - already have laws that oblige providers to block Italians' access to those services.

The Garante now therefore seeks possible collaboration with Agcom - the communications authority - which has a few more instruments. Or even an intervention by Parliament with an ad hoc law.

The Deepseek affair is therefore only the first major example of a difficulty in enforcing privacy laws in Italy, on a subject (Chinese) that has no seat in Europe.

'Artificial Intelligence: Privacy Guarantor blocks DeepSeek', headlined a note from the Garante in January. With hindsight, that 'blocks' sounds optimistic.

'The Garante per la protezione dei dati personali has ordered, as a matter of urgency and with immediate effect, the restriction of the processing of Italian users' data against Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, the Chinese companies that provide the DeepSeek chatbot service'.

The underlying problem is substantial. The Chinese companies behind Deepseek (Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence.) have in fact declared that they do not operate in Italy and are not subject to European data protection regulations, implicitly affirming the legal irrelevance of their activities with respect to Italian law.

In short, it is like saying: we do as we like with the data of the Italians, our law does not affect us. And in China that data can, to read, also end up in the hands of the government for its own purposes.

Moreover, it is a wrong answer: by European standards, if a chatbot (or any service) is usable in Europe, the European privacy regulation applies. The problem is how to enforce the rules. It is already difficult with the US big tech companies, which, however, are based in Europe and, also because of the big economic interests at stake for them on the Continent, tend to comply with European privacy regulations (even if dragging their feet). See the 'pay or be profiled' issue of Meta https://www.ilsole24ore.com/radiocor/nRC_01.03.2024_16.33_52910529.

The question therefore arises especially for foreign entities that have neither headquarters nor a particular interest in the European market, so they can challenge the laws.

Especially since, as we can see, privacy laws are deficient, lacking enforcement tools against foreigners. Agcom can use the Digital Services Act, which, however, does not deal explicitly with privacy but with neighbouring issues (such as disinformation). The Privacy Guarantor will therefore seek cooperation with Agcom in order to achieve the blackout of Deepseek. And of other subjects that will show the same problems in the future.

It may not be enough, however. Without a law giving this power, specifically, it may not be possible to do the blackouts. A law has allowed Agcom to do real-time blocking of illicit football streaming, in fact, precisely by imposing it on internet providers.

This is why the Garante is reportedly considering a referral to parliament. Without this step, his weapons will remain blunt. Against Deepseek and against whoever, in the future, from abroad - not only Chinese but also American, perhaps, with the times we live in - will want to operate in defiance of privacy laws and do what they want with our data.

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Deepseek, here's how the Privacy Guarantor wants to block it (for real)

The Garante Privacy is trying and will try in various ways to block Deepseek in Italy, the famous Chinese low-cost artificial intelligence. This time it really wants to block it.

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I prossimi eventi

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