Italy’s data protection authority on Thursday blocked access to the Chinese AI application DeepSeek to protect users' data and announced an investigation into the companies behind the chatbot. The authority,

The country’s data watchdog says the firm gave it ‘completely insufficient’ answers to questions about what it does with user information.

DeepSeek, the controversial Chinese AI chatbot, is no longer available for download in Italy and Ireland. Both countries pulled the app from Apple and Google stores on Jan. 29, accusing the company of dodging questions about its handling of personal data and causing fears of Chinese government access to user information.