U.S. Department of Homeland Security directs civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek and bans new procurements

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a directive ordering all U.S. federal civilian agencies to immediately uninstall all products developed by Chinese AI company DeepSeek from government IT systems and to fully prohibit procurement of any third-party services built upon DeepSeek’s models. The directive states that using DeepSeek’s technology poses risks of sensitive data being transmitted to China and could enable the generation of intelligence targeting U.S. individuals and institutions; DHS has classified such models as “multi-faceted threat vectors.” The ban applies not only to DeepSeek’s official applications but also to all third-party services built on its models. An internal DHS memorandum—originally issued in July and made public on Monday—had previously instructed agencies to continuously monitor government website traffic for potential DeepSeek-related risks. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Navy, and the states of New York, Tennessee, and Virginia have already imposed restrictions on DeepSeek.