The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered federal civilian agencies to stop buying products and services from Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, the Chinese AI company, and its affiliates. Agencies must also remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems, along with third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations.
Notice of the order was published in the Federal Register on 20 October. The signed order, attached as an appendix, carries an original release date of 24 July 2026 and is signed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. It was issued under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018.
Both parts take effect immediately. The procurement ban reaches agency-approved product lists, e-commerce markets and similar buying channels. Agencies that want a delay, or want the order not to apply to certain actions, can ask for an exception in writing within 60 days of the order being issued. CISA reviews those requests.
The order cites risks including DeepSeek’s servers being located in China, the collection of personal information from people using DeepSeek-hosted models, and the chance that sensitive government data entered into its apps could reach China. It does not cover national security systems, which fall under the Department of War and the intelligence community.
The order’s footnotes say it includes third-party implementations of DeepSeek used to provide products and services to agencies, but it gives no further detail on how far down the supply chain that reaches.
For software vendors selling to US civilian agencies, the practical effect is that they may need to show that nothing they supply is built on DeepSeek’s models.
Read the notice: Notice of Order Regarding Exclusion and Removal of DeepSeek Products (Federal Register)