BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - DeepSeek may face more

actions from national regulators in the future, Europe's privacy

watchdog said on Tuesday, underscoring the bloc's concerns about

the rising popularity of the cheap Chinese artificial

intelligence startup.

National privacy regulators discussed DeepSeek at a monthly

meeting on Tuesday, after Italy blocked the chatbot over lack of

information on its use of personal data and as enforcers in

France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries

questioned DeepSeek on its data collection practices.

"Several DPAs (data protection authorities) have already

started actions vis-a-vis DeepSeek and there may be further

actions in the future," a spokesperson for the European Data

Protection Board (EDPB) said in an email after the meeting.

The concerns prompted the EDPB to broaden the scope of a

taskforce created in April 2023 to foster cooperation and

exchange information on enforcement related to AI.

The taskforce had originally focused only on Microsoft ( MSFT )

-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT.

"In addition, the EDPB members underlined the need to

coordinate DPAs' actions regarding urgent sensitive matters and

for that purpose will set up a quick response team," the

spokesperson said.

Europe has been in the forefront of protecting its citizens'

privacy rights while its General Data Protection Regulation,

which came into effect in 2018, is the toughest privacy law in

the world.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)