ROME, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The Chinese artifical

intelligence application DeepSeek appeared to be unavailable on

Wednesday in Apple ( AAPL ) and Google app stores in Italy on Wednesday.

A notice displayed to customers on Apple's ( AAPL ) App

Store said the app was "currently not available in the country

or area you are in. A message on the Google app

platform, said the download "was not supported" in Italy.

DeepSeek was still working on Wednesday in other European

countries and in Britain.

The disappearance came after Italy's data protection

authority said on Tuesday it was seeking answers from DeepSeek

on its use of personal data.

The Italian regulator, also known as the Garante, said it

wanted to know what personal data is collected, from which

sources, for what purposes, on what legal basis, and whether it

is stored in China.