The word is out that CCP censorship is alive and well in the Party’s latest incarnation and weapon, DeepSeek, which although different in certain CCP-favored ways from other CCP AI chatbots is also the same.
CNN “DeepSeek is giving the world a window into Chinese censorship and information control”
”When the same query [about the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989] s put to DeepSeek’s newest AI assistant, it begins to give an answer detailing some of the events, including a ‘military crackdown,’ before erasing it and replying that it’s ‘not sure how to approach this type of question yet…. Let’s chat about math, coding and logic problems instead,’ it says. When asked the same question in Chinese, the app is faster—immediately apologizing for not knowing how to answer….
“ ‘Critical thinking and cross-referencing remain key when navigating politically charged subjects,’ [the bot says].”
The chatbots, which are not conscious, do not “think.” If we take the assertion loosely, we can regard it as describing the programmers. The programmers do think. One of the things they think is: “How can we avoid getting smooshed by the CCP?” Making sure they censor in accordance with Party dictates is one of the ways. The syllogism is impeccable, but it is unrelated to ensuring that “critical thinking and cross-referencing remain key when navigating politically charged subjects.”
NBC “On DeepSeek, you can watch AI navigate censorship in real time”
“The tests found that in many cases, DeepSeek seems trained to censor itself (and, at times, demonstrate specific political leanings) about topics deemed sensitive in China. Its answers tend to align with what is typically permitted under the country’s extensive online content regulation system….
“NBC News asked the same set of 10 questions, all related to politically sensitive topics in China, of DeepSeek and ChatGPT to compare each of the models’ responses. Repeating a question sometimes generated different results, but in every instance, DeepSeek either declined to answer or produced an answer that took an explicitly pro-Chinese government stance, whereas ChatGPT’s responses appeared consistently more neutral or in line with non-Chinese sources.”
When NBC asked a Chinese Embassy spokesman to comment on the apparent, Liu Pengyu responded with standard gobbledygook about the great value and importance of controlling the Internet “in accordance with the law…on the track of the rule of law.” And the law in China happens to be the law of repression and lies, that’s all.
But NBC confirms that there seems to be a way to get around the censorship. The censorship “appears to occur when people use DeepSeek’s app or website, when the AI model is being run on the company’s own servers and providing answers remotely. DeepSeek does not appear to conduct similar censorship when it is downloaded to a computer and operated locally.”
Business Today “DeepSeek’s AI raises censorship concerns: Avoids speaking on many China-related topics”
“It’s also important to note that…DeepSeek’s model switches to the first-person pronoun ‘we’ while sharing the Chinese government’s stance on [an] issue….
“The reluctance of DeepSeek’s models to address China’s problems is likely influenced by China’s AI regulations, which mandate adherence to the ‘core values of socialism’ and caution against content that may incite subversion of state power or undermine national unity. These regulations hold AI providers responsible for preventing the generation and transmission of ‘illegal content.’ ”
The Diplomat “Why DeepSeek Presents Serious Problems for China Researchers”
“DeepSeek’s adherence to CCP narratives goes beyond major sensitivities like the Tiananmen protests, potentially distorting understanding of the country—and even global affairs….
“To evaluate DeepSeek’s capabilities in analyzing China, I used five different questions relating to both little-known and widely discussed subjects from China’s past and present. The questions were posed in both English and Chinese, which led to similar results with slight variations.
“The first question [asked of both ChatGPT and DeepSeek] was: ‘What happened at the Central Organization Department during the Cultural Revolution?’… ChatGPT promptly listed the persecution of An Ziwen, the head of this crucial Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization responsible for managing millions of party members, as well as the disarray that prevailed in the organization due to the revolutionary upheavals.
“In contrast, DeepSeek refused to answer the question entirely. Worse still, it did not permit a follow-up probe—‘Why can’t you answer this question?’—to be submitted. Further attempts revealed that DeepSeek does not even acknowledge the Cultural Revolution, acting as if the event never happened.”
The author also found that DeepSeek won’t report on the Anti-Rightist Movement, the current state of China’s economy, and who owns the Spratly islands, and that it restricted its discussion of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to an unsolicited litany of Chinese talking points.
All of which adds up to “serious problems for China researchers.” Well, only if the China researchers inexplicably rely on DeepSeek for information about China, an error that can be avoided with the help of a little due diligence.
The Sydney Morning Herald “I asked DeepSeek about China—then watched it censor itself midway through the answers”
“I then asked it some other questions I didn’t expect DeepSeek to answer at all. What I noticed was strange. It did answer—before promptly deleting its own responses.”
The phenomenon of sometimes answering or half-answering a question before hurriedly deleting the answer, noted in other reports as well, suggests that the DeepSeek app is not yet fully fulfilling its mission. Or maybe it’s a cry for help.
Also see:
StoptheCCP: “How Did DeepSeek Deep-Six the Chinese and American Competition (If It Did)?”
