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US Orders Federal Agencies to Remove DeepSeek Products: What Happened
The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their information technology systems and to stop buying them, according to a notice published on Monday, October 19. The order reaches beyond the Chinese company’s own software: it also covers third-party products and services built using DeepSeek’s AI models. The department said the models present “multiple threat vectors” and warned that their use by government employees or vendors “may result in the transfer of sensitive data to the PRC.” The decision makes DeepSeek the latest Chinese technology company to face formal exclusion from US government systems.
What the order requires
The instruction is called an Exclusion and Removal Order, numbered 2026-01. It names Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. and its affiliated entities. Under the order, civilian agencies must immediately remove DeepSeek software, affiliated tools, and any third-party applications developed using DeepSeek implementations from their systems. Agencies must also exclude the company from approved product lists and may not acquire its products or services in the future.
There is a narrow exception process. An agency that needs DeepSeek technology for a mission-critical function can submit a written exemption request through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, with a compelling justification and proposed safeguards. Requests had to be filed within 60 days of the order’s issuance. While removal is under way, agencies are directed to apply interim protections, including enhanced network logging, strict controls on outbound data transfers, and continuous monitoring for unusual network traffic.
Who must comply
The order applies to civilian executive branch agencies. It does not cover the Department of Defense, and national security systems are governed by separate authorities. It is also not a ban on the general public: nothing in the order restricts private companies or individual users from using DeepSeek’s app, website, or open models.
The order was signed on July 24, 2026, under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, following a recommendation from the Federal Acquisition Security Council. It became public only this week, when DHS filed the notice ahead of its publication in the Federal Register on October 20. A separate July memo, also made public on Monday, had already told agencies to monitor traffic entering and leaving government websites to address potential risks from DeepSeek.
Why DHS says DeepSeek is a risk
DHS General Counsel James Percival wrote in the directive that “DeepSeek’s models present multiple threat vectors.” The department’s central concern is data. DeepSeek’s servers operate in China, and DHS argued that Chinese legislation gives government cyber and intelligence bodies extensive authority to access private company infrastructure. Prompts and queries entered by federal employees could therefore expose sensitive operational information to foreign interception. DHS warned that such information, combined with public records, “could produce actionable intelligence on US persons and/or government agencies.” The department added that “the models themselves may contain malware or other security vulnerabilities,” and said independent assessments had identified critical vulnerabilities in DeepSeek’s mobile software as well as user fingerprinting risks. The notice did not identify specific instances in which data had actually been transferred.
Not the first restriction
The order extends restrictions that were already building inside the US government. The Commerce Department barred DeepSeek from government devices in 2025, and the US Navy directed its personnel the same year not to use the technology. Several states, including New York, Tennessee, and Virginia, have taken similar steps for state systems. The action also lands amid a broader US effort to limit Chinese technology in sensitive settings. DeepSeek drew worldwide attention because its open-weight models compete with leading US systems at far lower cost, which is also why so many third-party tools are built on them — and why a removal order written around one company reaches so much other software.
What this means
For federal agencies, the practical work is inventory: finding every product in their systems that runs on DeepSeek models, including tools bought from other vendors. For software companies selling to the government, the order is a warning that the origin of an embedded AI model is now a supply-chain question, not just a technical choice. For everyone else, nothing changes directly — DeepSeek remains available to the public. But the order shows how quickly a popular open model can become a compliance problem once it is built into other products. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment on the order, and DeepSeek had not issued a public response at the time of reporting.