Can DeepSeek and the surrounding news be trusted?

What does everyone think about the sustainability and reliability of DeepSeek? It is heavily moderated, as shown in examples (e.g., try queries like "Xi Jinping," "Tiananmen Square," or "Arunachal Pradesh," and you'll see). Also, how true can the report of $5.5 million being spent to develop it be? Not saying it can't be true (We are doing nothing and it's still better than India's AI progress no doubt), but I just want to understand the reliability of the news.