How Chinese AI is censoring the controversy around Mbappé’s Chairman Mao comments

France 24’s tests found that Chinese AI chatbots restricted or misrepresented information about Kylian Mbappé’s joke concerning Mao Zedong. The findings suggest that users may receive different accounts of a politically sensitive controversy depending on which chatbot and internet location they use.

Mbappé made the joke on a French podcast in mid-October, prompting Chinese sponsors to end partnerships and a rebuke from China’s foreign ministry; he later apologised. Testing DeepSeek and ByteDance’s Doubao with a China-based internet address, researchers found Doubao refused to answer whether Mbappé had called Mao a dictator, while DeepSeek described the claim as likely fake news. DeepSeek also declined to answer when tested from France, saying the question went beyond its remit.