US DHS Orders Removal of DeepSeek AI Technology from Federal Civilian Agencies

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published an order on the Federal Register on October 19, 2026, requiring all federal civilian agencies to remove any products or services affiliated with the Chinese company DeepSeek Ltd. from their information technology systems. The order also prohibits these agencies from purchasing DeepSeek's products and services in the future.

In the order, DHS warned that DeepSeek’s AI models present “multiple threat vectors” that could give the Chinese Communist Party “extensive authority” to access critical American government infrastructure. The agency stated that the technology could be used to “track or digitally fingerprint” users and may result in the “transfer of sensitive data to the People’s Republic of China if used by U.S. government or vendors.”

This action was taken under the 2018 Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act following a review by the Federal Acquisition Security Council. It is not the first restriction on DeepSeek by the U.S. government: last year, the Commerce Department banned DeepSeek from government devices, the U.S. Navy directed its members not to use the model due to potential security concerns, and New York State excluded it from government networks over serious data privacy and censorship risks.

Although DeepSeek did not rank in the top 10 in a recent government survey regarding public opinion of AI models, its R1 model caused industry shock upon release in 2025, outperforming some models from OpenAI and Anthropic in complex tests at a fraction of the cost. With the recent release of DeepSeek's V4.1 Flash model, regulatory pressure at the federal level has become further institutionalized.