US Department of Homeland Security Issues DeepSeek Ban
The US Department of Homeland Security ordered civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems and excluded the company from federal procurement.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in a directive sent to civilian federal agencies, decided to remove Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek's products from information technology systems and exclude them from federal procurement.
According to the notice submitted by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday and scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the decision in question was made under the Federal Supply Chain Security Act. Signed in line with the recommendation of the Federal Acquisition Security Council and relevant evidence, this order covers Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. as well as its subsidiaries and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek infrastructures.
In the process behind the decision, the market position of the company's low-cost open-weight models was influential. Regarding DeepSeek, which drew global market attention with its R1 model in early 2025, the House Select Committee on China stated in April 2025 that ties to the Beijing administration were significant. Additionally, Anthropic accused five Chinese AI companies, including DeepSeek, of unauthorized distillation in a September report, claiming that more than 12 million interactions were recorded during a two-week period in July 2026.