US orders DeepSeek products removed from federal civilian agencies

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday made public an order directing federal civilian agencies to stop using technology from the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, remove existing deployments and exclude its products from future procurement. The order is listed for publication in the Federal Register.

What the order covers

• According to The Register, it applies to “all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations”.
• It covers civilian agencies such as the Treasury, State Department and Justice Department; agencies within the Department of Defense are excluded, the BBC reports.
• CyberScoop says the notice relies on the federal supply-chain security law and a review by the Federal Acquisition Security Council, and includes a letter from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dated 26 June, indicating the exclusion has been in force for months.
• Agencies can request exceptions, but must do so 60 days in advance with a “compelling justification”, such as a mission-critical need.

The stated reasons

In the letter, as quoted by CyberScoop, Mullin says DeepSeek’s models present “multiple threat vectors”: data stored on servers in China, where national-security laws give the government wide access to company data; collection of personal information by DeepSeek-hosted models; and the risk that prompts and responses transfer sensitive data. DeepSeek and the Chinese embassy had been contacted for comment by the BBC.

Questions about scope

Security expert Katie Moussouris told The Register that banning DeepSeek’s own app and API is workable, but that the undefined phrase “developed using” could in theory sweep in any software whose developers used DeepSeek, which vendors could not practically verify. The Pentagon’s IT agency, the US Navy, NASA and the House of Representatives had already restricted DeepSeek since early 2025, The Register notes.