The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered civilian federal agencies to remove products from China's DeepSeek, and any third-party services built on its models, from their IT systems, and to stop acquiring them going forward, according to a notice set for official publication in the Federal Register.
DHS cited the risk that use of DeepSeek's products 'may result in the transfer of sensitive data to the PRC if used by US government employees or vendors,' and warned that the models themselves could contain malware or other security vulnerabilities. Reporting on the order's timeline differs slightly: one account describes the underlying directive as dated 24 July, with public notice appearing in the Federal Register on 19 October ahead of formal publication the following day.
Narrower than it sounds
Despite headlines describing a 'ban,' the restriction applies specifically to civilian US federal executive branch agencies and the vendors that serve them — it does not extend to American companies or ordinary consumers, who remain free to use DeepSeek's chatbot and open-weight models. The action also stops short, for now, of placing DeepSeek on the Commerce Department's Entity List, which would trigger broader export-control restrictions.
The move follows a pattern that predates this specific order: the Department of Commerce and the US Navy have already restricted DeepSeek on government devices, and several states, including New York, Tennessee and Virginia, have imposed similar bans of their own over the past year.
Use of DeepSeek products may result in the transfer of sensitive data to the PRC.
Department of Homeland Security notice
Part of a broader AI rivalry
The order lands amid an intensifying contest between the US and China over AI dominance, with Washington increasingly treating Chinese AI labs' access to American users and infrastructure as a national-security question rather than a purely commercial one. DeepSeek, which rattled US markets with a low-cost competitive model early last year, has continued to draw scrutiny from lawmakers even as its models remain popular with developers for their low cost and open licensing.
What happens next
Civilian agencies now have to audit their systems for DeepSeek-derived tools and contracted services, a process that could take months given how deeply some AI tools are embedded in third-party software used across government. Congressional China hawks are expected to push for the restrictions to go further, including possible Entity List designation, while DeepSeek has not publicly responded to the order.