Federal civilian agencies must stop buying DeepSeek products and services and remove them from government systems, according to a Department of Homeland Security order that TechCrunch reported on 20 October, citing a Federal Register notice of the same day.
The order applies to federal civilian agencies only, and TechCrunch gives no count of how many are affected.
The order covers new purchases and existing systems, and extends to third-party products and services built using DeepSeek technology. Agencies can request exceptions, though the order does not say on what grounds those would be granted.
DHS’s stated concern is that sensitive data from US government users could be accessible to Chinese authorities under Chinese law. It frames that as a potential risk, not a confirmed incident.
The order follows a December 2025 law that targeted DeepSeek’s use in intelligence and national security systems. In a September report the US also accused DeepSeek and five other Chinese AI companies of large-scale model distillation. TechCrunch notes that the US government, OpenAI and Anthropic have each made distillation claims, but no findings or outcomes have followed.
Beijing has so far objected only verbally, saying it will resolutely safeguard the rights of Chinese enterprises. Bloomberg reported the previous week that China is considering export restrictions on 23 AI-related technologies, which remains unconfirmed.
The notice gives no compliance deadline, no criteria for exceptions, and no definition of what counts as built using DeepSeek technology. Those three gaps will decide how far the order actually reaches.
