US Orders DeepSeek Out of Federal Civilian IT Systems
The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek AI from their IT systems and banned all future purchases.
The US government has ordered federal civilian agencies to remove AI technology made by Chinese company DeepSeek from their computer systems. The order also blocks the agencies from buying any DeepSeek products or services in the future.
What the order requires
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the order on Monday, October 19, 2026. It tells every civilian federal agency to remove DeepSeek products already running on their IT systems. The rule also covers products from DeepSeek affiliates and any third-party tools built using DeepSeek's models or implementations. No new purchases of DeepSeek technology are allowed.
Why the US took this step
DHS says DeepSeek's models pose "multiple threat vectors." The department warned that using DeepSeek could lead to sensitive data being transferred to China if government employees or vendors use it. It also warned that DeepSeek could produce usable intelligence on US persons and government agencies, and that the models themselves may contain malware or other security flaws. An accompanying note from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said DeepSeek's account setup collects personally identifiable information and may track and digitally fingerprint users.
A ban signed months ago
The signed order, numbered 2026-01, is dated July 24, 2026 - meaning the ban was already in force for nearly three months before it was made public. Agencies that want an exception must apply to DHS in writing with a strong justification and proposed safeguards, normally within 60 days of the order being issued. Since the order stayed out of public view until October, that window had effectively closed before most observers knew it existed.
What it covers - and what it does not
The order applies to products from Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. and its affiliates across the civilian executive branch. It does not cover the military or classified systems, which fall under separate orders from the defense and intelligence agencies. It also does not set export controls on DeepSeek's technology for the private sector. What is still unclear is exactly how far the ban reaches into commercial products that quietly use DeepSeek's open models under the hood - a question every federal vendor now has to answer about its own software.
The bigger picture
The move comes as the US-China race in artificial intelligence heats up. DeepSeek shook the industry early last year with the release of its R1 model, which matched leading American systems at a fraction of the development cost. Some research now suggests the gap between US and Chinese AI capabilities has narrowed to just a couple of months. This is not the first US government action against DeepSeek: both the Navy and the Department of Commerce had already told their personnel not to use its models. The pattern follows earlier American restrictions on Chinese technology, from Huawei hardware to TikTok.