Technologies like DeepSeek and Moomoo are banned from state government devices after a ban issued Friday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The order bans artificial intelligence or social media apps affiilated with Chinese companies. Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Department of Information Resources to add RedNote, DeepSeek, Webull, Tiger Brokers, Moomoo, and Lemon8 to the state's list of "prohibited technologies."
"Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps," Abbott wrote in a statement. "To achieve that mission, I ordered Texas state agencies to ban Chinese government-based AI and social media apps from all state-issued devices. State agencies and employees responsible for handling critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party. Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
Abbott banned TikTok from government devices in 2022, a ban that was passed by the legislature and signed into law in 2023.
The governor's statement did not say how many of these apps were previously in use on Texas government devices.