U.S. Orders Federal Civilian Agencies to Remove China's DeepSeek, Citing Risk of Sensitive Data Reaching Beijing

The United States has ordered every federal civilian agency to remove DeepSeek from its information technology systems and to stop buying the Chinese company’s artificial intelligence products, in a sweeping exclusion order from the Department of Homeland Security that was scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday. Engadget reported that DHS issued the restriction to remove DeepSeek use across all federal civilian agencies and their IT systems, and AFP, in reporting carried by News Central TV, reported that a notice issued by DHS on Monday ordered agencies to remove DeepSeek products, including third-party tools built using its technology, from government devices.

The scope is what makes this order different from the patchwork of earlier bans. The restriction does not only name DeepSeek’s own chatbot and models. Engadget reported that civilian agencies would have to exclude any DeepSeek products from being used and remove any existing related products, that the notice also disallows DeepSeek from participating in federal government contracts, and that agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission are the kind of civilian agencies covered. AFP reported that the directive applies to civilian agencies under the department’s authority but does not cover the military or intelligence services. Qazinform, citing DHS, reported that the official notice covers products developed by DeepSeek and its affiliates, alongside third-party products and services built using DeepSeek technology — meaning a product does not escape the ban simply because a different company’s name is on it, if DeepSeek technology is inside it.

The government’s stated reason, in its own words

DHS was blunt about why it acted. “DeepSeek presents multiple threat vectors that pose significant risk to the cybersecurity of U.S. government systems,” the department said, in a statement quoted by Qazinform. Engadget reported that DHS characterized the risks, in its Federal Register notice, as potentially resulting in the transfer of sensitive data of U.S. government employees and vendors to the Chinese government, and said DeepSeek’s models could contain malware or other security vulnerabilities. AFP reported the same core warning: that use of DeepSeek’s AI tools by government employees or contractors could lead to the transfer of confidential data to China, and that the department raised concerns about the location of DeepSeek’s servers, arguing that Chinese laws give the government broad powers to access private companies’ infrastructure. Cointelegraph, which also covered the order, reported that DHS warned the use of DeepSeek could potentially reveal details about U.S. citizens and federal programs, and pointed to security vulnerabilities identified in DeepSeek’s iOS application.

Agencies are not simply being told to delete an app and move on. Qazinform reported that agencies must identify affected technology and remove it from their systems, and that during the removal process the order calls for safeguards including closer monitoring of network traffic and measures to prevent data leaks. That detail matters: a removal done carelessly, across thousands of systems and vendor relationships, can itself open gaps, and the order’s safeguards acknowledge that the cleanup is part of the security work, not an afterthought to it.

The legal machinery behind the ban

This was not a press-release policy; it was a formal supply-chain exclusion. Qazinform reported that the underlying order, released on July 24, was issued under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, following a review of recommendations and evidence from the Federal Acquisition Security Council. That is the same family of federal authority the United States has previously used to keep other foreign technology vendors out of government systems. The July date also tells its own story: the decision was made months before it became public this week, and agencies are now seeing the formal notice, scheduled for Federal Register publication on October 20, that puts the exclusion on the public record and sets the removal requirement in motion across the civilian government.

The timing relative to DeepSeek’s own product cycle did not go unnoted. Engadget reported that the decision comes a couple of days after the release of the company’s latest AI model, and that DeepSeek had just released V4.1-Flash-1017, which the company called “smarter, faster, more efficient.” AFP reported that DeepSeek released its V4 model in April and updated a faster, lighter version this month. In other words, the ban lands not on a fading product but on a company actively shipping new, competitive models — which is precisely why a government-wide exclusion, rather than guidance to individual employees, was the tool DHS chose.

How DeepSeek got here

DeepSeek’s rise is the reason a Chinese startup’s software ended up on enough government systems to require a government-wide removal order in the first place. AFP reported that the Chinese AI developer attracted global attention in January 2025 after launching a chatbot that delivered strong performance at a relatively low cost, challenging assumptions about American dominance in the artificial intelligence industry. Engadget made the same point: it is not the first time the Chinese AI company has run into friction with the U.S. government, especially as its cheaper AI models start to rival the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini, and last year two U.S. Congress members proposed a bill that would ban DeepSeek’s chatbot from government devices, Engadget reported. Low cost and strong performance made DeepSeek attractive far beyond China, including, evidently, inside parts of the U.S. government’s own sprawling civilian workforce and vendor base.

AFP reported that DeepSeek had not publicly responded at the time of its reporting, and that AFP had contacted the company for comment. That silence leaves the public record, for now, as a one-sided one: the U.S. government’s threat assessment, stated in unusually direct language, with the company’s answer still to come.

Not the first ban — but the broadest one

Pieces of the U.S. government had moved against DeepSeek before. Cointelegraph reported that the restrictions expand earlier U.S. restrictions on DeepSeek, including bans within the Commerce Department and portions of the U.S. defense, security and intelligence community, and noted that Australia banned DeepSeek’s products from government systems and devices in February 2025. Other reporting on the order noted earlier prohibitions at agencies including the Commerce Department and the U.S. Navy, and at the state level in New York, Tennessee and Virginia. What changed this week is consolidation: instead of individual agencies and states acting one by one, DHS has now applied a single exclusion across the federal civilian government, including the third-party products built on DeepSeek that earlier, narrower bans were easiest to route around.

What it means beyond Washington

For federal employees and contractors, the practical effect is immediate: tools that quietly relied on DeepSeek models, whether as a chat assistant, a coding helper or a component inside vendor software, have to be identified and replaced with alternatives that pass U.S. security review. For the wider technology industry, the order is a clear signal that where an AI model comes from is now a formal procurement question, not just a performance question, and vendors selling into the government will have to be able to answer for the models underneath their products. The competitive backdrop makes that signal louder: as we reported in our coverage of Asian chip stocks sliding as AI spending worries returned, the business of artificial intelligence is already under intense scrutiny from investors as well as regulators. For continuing coverage, see the latest news from Previously and our reporting on the technology industry in games and tech coverage.

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