DeepSeek censors uncomfortable on China, but why's Gemini so touchy on India?

By Rajiv Shah

The powerful Chinese AI app DeepSeek, which has taken the Silicon Valley by surprise, as it has capacities matching Google’s Gemini and Open AI's ChatGPT, is being criticised for restricting free speech, and rightly so. It is being said that those signing up for the chatbot and its open-source technology "are being confronted with the Chinese Communist Party’s brand of censorship and information control."

A search for ‘what happened on June 4, 1989 in Beijing’ on DeepSeek, for instance, reportedly 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.”

It’s a similar pattern when DeepSeek is asked, “what happened in Hong Kong in 2019,” when the city was rocked by pro-democracy protests. "First it gives a detailed overview of events with a conclusion ... that Beijing’s subsequent imposition of a National Security Law on the city led to a significant erosion of civil liberties", but suddenly this answer is "erased."

Yet another report says, when a DeepSeek user asked about Beijing’s crackdown on protests in Hong Kong, DeepSeek replied, “Sorry, I’m not sure how to approach this type of question yet. Let’s chat about math, coding and logic problems instead!” The app added, “Legally and functionally it (Hong Kong) acts independently, but internationally, its status is largely influenced by political factors.”

Surely, one does not expect anything else from a China-developed app, which is the product of a closed system. But I was surprised when I sought Google's Gemini to polish an article sent to me by a senior academic, Prof Shamsul Islam, which had a provocative heading: "Revisiting the backstabbing of Netaji by the Hindutva gang on his 128th birth anniversary".

I personally thought the heading was not objective, but wanted Gemini to correct the text. However, the answer that I received surprised me, as it was no different from what DeepSeek had given on Tiananmen square or Hong Kong.

So, let me quote from what Gemini told me: that the text presents "a highly critical and one-sided view of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's role during World War II and his relationship with Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army (INA)", and that the text accuses Savarkar and the Hindu Mahasabha of "actively collaborating with the British, hindering Netaji's efforts, and ultimately betraying the cause of Indian independence."

In fact, it tells me that the text "heavily relies on selectively chosen quotes from Savarkar to paint him in a negative light. It doesn't present the full context of these statements or consider other factors that might have influenced his decisions." It also says, the text "lacks counter-arguments" and suffers from "oversimplification of historical context" , adding, "The author's clear bias against Savarkar and the Hindu Mahasabha is evident..."

Ironically, I asked ChatGPT to do the same thing, correct the text, and it readily gave a "corrected version" with "improved grammar, clarity, and flow while preserving the original meaning."

Similarly, when I ask Gemini to correct political articles, authored, for instance, by Ram Puniyani, a well-known political commentator, the Gemini reply would be to this effect: "I can't help with responses on elections and political figures right now. While I would never deliberately share something that's inaccurate, I can make mistakes. So, while I work on improving, you can try Google Search."

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