US Bans DeepSeek in Federal Civilian Agencies, Even Tools Built on It

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered federal civilian agencies to exclude products from Chinese AI company Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and its affiliates from new purchases, and to remove existing DeepSeek products from their IT systems. A notice of the order was published in the Federal Register on October 20.

The removal requirement reaches beyond DeepSeek's own apps. It also covers third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations, which could include software from vendors that build on DeepSeek's openly released models. That makes it a supply chain question for any company selling AI tools to civilian agencies.

What counts is not yet clear. The order does not define what

developed using DeepSeek implementations

means, and it does not list specific products or say how agencies should handle a DeepSeek model hosted on a US company's servers.

DHS issued the order under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, after reviewing a recommendation and supporting evidence from the Federal Acquisition Security Council. According to The Hill, the order says DeepSeek's models present “multiple threat vectors,” that the Chinese government has broad authority to access private infrastructure, and that the models can collect personal information and may track or digitally fingerprint users. It also warns that prompts sent through some widely used DeepSeek apps could send sensitive data to China if used by government staff or vendors.

Until removal is complete, DHS encourages agencies to monitor traffic entering and leaving their systems, increase logging, tighten controls against data exfiltration and flag unusual activity.

The order covers civilian agencies only. Under federal acquisition rules, DHS issues these orders for civilian agencies, while the Defense Department and the Director of National Intelligence issue their own. It does not bar businesses or individuals from using DeepSeek.

For contractors, the rules already in place apply. Federal contractors must check the government's SAM.gov system at least every three months for products subject to these orders and report any covered items they find.

The Hill reported that the order was first issued in July, while other outlets date it to October 19. AI Briefing News has not been able to confirm the date from the signed order, which appears only as scanned pages in docket DHS-2026-0628 on regulations.gov.

The order does not give a compliance deadline in the published notice, and DeepSeek has not publicly responded.

The move formalizes restrictions that had been piecemeal. Agencies previously decided individually whether to block models like DeepSeek, and some, including the Commerce Department and the Navy, had already restricted employees from using the DeepSeek app on work devices.