The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered all federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek's technology from their IT systems and has prohibited any future procurement of the Chinese AI company's products and services. The order was reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by Engadget, which cited a notice published in the Federal Register.
According to the notice, DHS warned that using DeepSeek could lead to the "transfer of sensitive data" belonging to US government employees and vendors to the Chinese government. The department also said DeepSeek's models could "contain malware or other security vulnerabilities." The decision lands just days after DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash-1017, a model the company described as "smarter, faster, more efficient."
What the DHS order covers
The restriction is broad in scope. Under the notice, civilian agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must exclude any DeepSeek products from use and remove any existing related tools already in place.
The order also blocks DeepSeek from taking part in any federal government contracts. DHS framed the move as a data-security measure, arguing that federal systems and the information inside them should not pass through models it considers untrustworthy.
- Remove all DeepSeek technology from federal civilian agency IT systems
- Ban future procurement of DeepSeek products and services
- Bar DeepSeek from participating in federal government contracts
