# US bans DeepSeek from civilian federal agencies

> The Department of Homeland Security ordered all US civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products and third-party services built on its models, and to ban future procurement.

- Published: 2026-10-20
- Topic: [AI](https://futuretechnologyhq.com/topic/ai/)
- URL: https://futuretechnologyhq.com/article/dhs-bans-deepseek-us-civilian-agencies/
- Publisher: [Future Technology](https://futuretechnologyhq.com/), free to read. Quote as "Future Technology" with a link to the article.

## Key points

- The US Department of Homeland Security ordered all civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products and stop buying them.
- The order also covers third-party services built on DeepSeek models.
- It uses powers under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018.

## Article

The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered all civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems and to ban future procurement. The order uses powers under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018.

The DHS order cites multiple threat vectors including potential transfer of sensitive data to the People's Republic of China, the risk of generating actionable intelligence on US persons or agencies, and possible malware or security vulnerabilities in the models themselves.

## What the order covers

The ban applies to DeepSeek products and to third-party services built on DeepSeek models. The order blocks future purchases across the civilian federal enterprise and extends pressure to contractors that rely on government systems.

This extends beyond earlier moves by the Commerce Department, the US Navy and several states, which had imposed narrower restrictions. The formal civilian-agency exclusion now applies across the federal system.

## Model provenance as a procurement question

The inclusion of third-party services built on DeepSeek models creates a new dimension to procurement compliance. Open-weight models are often incorporated into other products with little public disclosure. This order means agencies and their contractors must identify whether tools they use rely on DeepSeek's models.

DeepSeek's low-cost open-weight models have challenged US developers on price and performance since early 2025. The formal exclusion order formalizes supply-chain exclusion of the Chinese AI lab from the civilian federal ecosystem, accelerating vendor scrutiny and compliance costs for any startup or enterprise that touches government data or contracts.

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## Sources

- [US bans Chinese AI DeepSeek from government agency IT systems](https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-banning-chinese-ai-deepseek-government-agency-it-systems-2026-10-19/)
- [Top tech news 19 October 2026](https://techstartups.com/2026/10/19/top-tech-news-today-october-19-2026-anthropic-deepseek-idealab-meta-microsoft-more)