US Orders Federal Civilian Agencies to Remove DeepSeek From IT Systems
By Kate Park, Thomas Claburn · · TexaHub · Artificial Intelligence, Defence & Security
The Department of Homeland Security ordered civilian federal agencies to stop buying DeepSeek products and to remove existing deployments. The order also covers third-party products built using DeepSeek technology.
Scope of the order
The Department of Homeland Security issued the order on October 19, covering all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations. Agencies can request exceptions. [1][2]
DHS warned that sensitive data from US government users could potentially be accessible to Chinese authorities under Chinese law. [1]
Practical questions
The Register noted it is unclear whether 'developed using' covers ongoing API access or any application built with DeepSeek's help, and that AI gateways such as OpenRouter could route requests to DeepSeek models unintentionally. [2]
Katie Moussouris of Luta Security said banning DeepSeek's own app and API is workable but the third-party provision is hard to verify, and that US-hosted versions of the models avoid most of the data-flow risks cited. [2]
Background
A law passed in December 2025 targeted DeepSeek's use in intelligence national security systems, and the Pentagon's Defense Information Systems Agency, the Navy, NASA and several states had already restricted it. [1][2]
China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning opposed what she called overstretching the concept of national security. [1]
Sources
[1] US orders federal agencies to remove China's DeepSeek AI from their systems — TechCrunch
[2] DeepSeek deep-sixed at all US federal civilian agencies — The Register