China has hit back at the Australian government’s banning of DeepSeek on all public sector devices, labelling it “ideological discrimination”.

Beijing has criticised Australia's decision to ban Chinese-owned AI chatbot DeepSeek from government devices. It comes as the federal government on Tuesday announced it was banning DeepSeek from workplace devices “to protect Australia’s national security and national interest".

SYDNEY: Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies, a top official said on Wednesday (Feb 5), citing privacy and malware risks posed by China's breakout AI programme.