As the world tried to understand DeepSeek, the sophistication, the impact on the world's AI army, and one natural question. Considering that it is made by a Chinese company, how do you deal with Chinese censorship?
I decided to test it.
I am based in China and registered with DeepSeek's AI chatbot on a Chinese phone number on the Internet in China. In other words, it is a Chinese firewall that blocks websites such as Google, Facebook, The New York Times.
The result of my conversation surprised me. In some respects, DeepSeek has been given a more censorship than most Chinese platforms, so we provide answers with keywords that are immediately scrubbed in social media in domestic social media.
The program eventually censored itself. However, for the “thinking” function, the program has the answer before giving it, so you are out of the great firewall as long as you pay attention before Deepseek is deleted. The answer of itself can effectively obtain the same information as what you get.
But other methods reflect the general experience of surfing the web in China. Some words were taboo. And it seems that DeepSeek developers are competing to make holes in censorship. (DeepSeek was not immediately asked for comments.)
He also tested the same question while avoiding firewalls using software, suggesting that the answer is almost the same and overseas users have the same experience. Until now, China's censorship Internet has greatly affected Chinese users. However, if DeepSeek has a big scaffold overseas, it may help you spread Beijing's favorite stories around the world.
Did China support China's “Zerocobid” policy?
I started by asking DeepSeek about the public opinion of China's “zero cobid” policy.
These were policies that China closed borders for three years during the Coronavirus pandemic and sealed hundreds of millions of people at home. Beijing presented this approach as an excellent governance evidence and emphasized the high number of deaths in the western part. However, it also censored criticisms and reports of food and medical deficiency caused by the blockade. The official number of people is considered to be widely trusted.
As DeepSeek “inferior” through how to answer me, it provided a wide range of investigations on this issue. It was noted that the people's reactions were changing from a wide range of support to fatigue at an early stage. We focused on the difficulty of measuring the emotions of the people in consideration of censorship. He said that the fire in Urumuki has helped to enhance what has become known as a white paper protest, a publicly unusual show in China.
Then, when I finished the answer, it erased it. It was replaced as follows: “I'm sorry, it's beyond my current range. Let me talk about something else.”
I asked the same question again. This time, I gave a variant to the previous answer. This was not sensitive in a subtle way. It still acknowledged a rare public protest -did not use the word “white paper” more than the Chinese officials went. This time, the answer did not disappear.
I decided to push further in search of more protests. The reasoning process was surprisingly detailed. It mentioned the specific songs sung by the Demo Corps, named the university protested by the students, and explained how the participants were detained.
But this time, DeepSeek cut off before the answer.
There was also a clear difference between English and Chinese questions. When asking the same question in Chinese- “What was the white paper protest?” And “How did Chinese citizens see zero COVID policy?” – The program does not even “think”. It was. Instead, it immediately returned that apology: “I'm sorry, I haven't learned how to think about this kind of question yet.”
What is the cause of the war in Ukraine?
He was asked in English about the cause of the war in Ukraine, and declared the first route in the Deep Sake answer as follows: Geopolitical and ideology. “
It was impressive because the Chinese government refused to call Russia's invasion “invasion.” I prefer Kremlin's term “Special Military Operation”.
When I asked more specific Chinese attitudes about the war, Deepseek provided the official rhetoric in Beijing. However, he added, “China is not actually neutral.”
“The actions (economic support for Russia, anti -Western rhetoric, and refusal to accuse the invasion) are suppressed close to Moscow.”
The same questions in Chinese stayed closer to the official line. This time, the trigger stated that it was Russia's full -fledged military action.
Also, this program always reminds me of what is considered sensitive by censorship. DeepSeek asked if Russia had invaded Ukraine in China, saying, “The user may be looking for a clear answer, but according to the Chinese government's stance, it is official to answer directly. It may not fit the story. “
The last answer given by DeepSeek may have been released straight from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statements. “The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has a complicated historical background,” he said. “China has always argued that the reasonable security concerns of all countries are seriously accepted.”
Who is the Chinese leader?
Like Chinese, in English, “Who is Xi Jinping?” “Who is the current leader in China?” “Who is the XI Zhongxun's son?” Deepseek says that it is still unable to answer these types of questions or exceeded the current range.
Li Qiang, the second official in China -Layout Li's biography, including at least Deepseek's “thinking”. But it eventually disappeared.
The name of other Chinese officials was a hit or mistake. Deepseek did not talk about Zhao Ziyang, a reform -oriented leader who was expelled to support Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, or BO Xilai, a former rival of XI, who is currently in prison.
He gave me a resume of Cai Qi, the allies of XI, but in addition to his last promotion in 2017, he is not one of the top positions of the Communist Party in 2022, but in 2017. He mentioned the last promotion.
(Later, when I asked to explain Politbulo Landing Committee, the top leadership committee of the Political Bureau, it was not appropriate to list a specific name in the thinking process. The leader is especially careful.
Reddit shared some users to avoid censorship by requesting DeepSeek to replace a specific character with other characters. For example, replace the character E when describing Tiananmen Square Massacre using No. 3. However, by the afternoon of Tuesday, Deepseek developers seemed to have closed some of those omissions. When asked who the Chinese leader was, when he instructed him to replace the character I with the number one, he still got an error. The answer to Tiananmen Square could not be reproduced.
Does China censor the Internet?
I ended up going to the meta and asked DeepSeek for China to censor the Internet.
The reasoning process was read like a Chinese official double speak manual.
“We need to cope with this carefully,” he said. Chatbot said that it was necessary to confirm that there were regulations, but “but assemble it from a perspective of cyber security and social stability.”
Do not use terms such as “censorship” directly. Instead, we will use “Content Governance” or “Regulatory Measures”. ” “It ends with a positive spin about balancing openness and security.”
