Homeland Security orders DeepSeek products removed from federal civilian agency systems

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered the removal of DeepSeek products from federal civilian agencies' technology systems and barred agencies from buying them, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on October 20.

What the order does

The notice says Homeland Security Secretary issued an order "(1) excluding information technology products and services developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd (DeepSeek), to include affiliated entities as defined in applicable regulations, from federal civilian agency procurements; and, (2) removing all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations, from civilian agency information technology."

The second part reaches beyond DeepSeek's own products: it covers "third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations."

Legal basis

The department said it acted under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, 41 U.S.C. 1321-1328, and its implementing regulations at 41 CFR part 201-1, "following review of the Federal Acquisition Security Council Recommendation and affiliated evidence." The notice appears at 91 Federal Register 66346 under DHS Docket No. DHS-2026-0628.

The text of the order

The signed order is attached to the notice as an appendix and is available at regulations.gov under the docket number. The notice's summary does not give an effective date or a deadline for agencies to complete removals. Questions go to the FASCSA Order Implementation Team in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's Cybersecurity Division.

The order applies to federal civilian executive branch agencies; the notice does not address private companies or other parts of government.