Thought Leadership
The US Department of Homeland Security requires civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products and services based on them, and to cease purchasing them.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered civilian federal agencies in the United States to remove products from the Chinese AI company DeepSeek from their IT systems. This directive also extends to products and services from other vendors developed using DeepSeek models. In addition, agencies are prohibited from procuring such products going forward. Directive 2026-01 was made public on October 19, having been in effect since late July. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin signed it on July 24. The legal foundation is a 2018 statute on supply chain security in federal procurement.
Departments Affected, Military Exempt
The directive applies to civilian agencies such as the Treasury, State, and Justice Departments. The military and intelligence agencies are exempt, as the DHS does not have the authority to issue requirements to them. The ban does not apply to state governments, private enterprises, or other nations’ governments. The published text does not specify a concrete deadline by which agencies must complete the removal of the products.
Concerns Over Data Outflow to China
The DHS justifies the directive by citing security risks. The use of DeepSeek by government employees or service providers could result in the transfer of sensitive data to China. DeepSeek’s servers are situated in China, where the government, according to the DHS, holds broad authority to access the infrastructure of private enterprises. The models could also harvest personal data and track or digitally identify users. “The models themselves may contain malware or other security vulnerabilities,” the directive states. The document does not cite a specific incident in which government data was transferred to DeepSeek.
Previously, entities including the US Department of Commerce and the US Navy had already banned DeepSeek on official devices, as had multiple US states, including New York, Tennessee, and Virginia. In a memo distributed in July, the DHS had also instructed agencies to monitor web traffic on their sites for connections to DeepSeek.
Controversial in Europe as Well
In Europe, the Italian data protection authority had already blocked the DeepSeek app in January 2025. In June 2025, the Berlin Data Protection Commissioner called on Apple and Google to remove the application from their app stores, arguing that it unlawfully transmitted personal data to China. DeepSeek caused a stir in January 2025 with its low-cost model R1. On October 17, 2026, the company released a new version of its models with V4.1-Flash.
(Editorial Team)
