US orders civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek, including products built on it
A Homeland Security order bars DeepSeek from federal civilian purchasing and requires agencies to remove its products, and third-party products built using DeepSeek, from their systems.
DeepSeeksubjectUnited StatesactorUS Department of Homeland SecurityactorCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security AgencyreviewerChinacontext
The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered federal civilian agencies to stop buying DeepSeek products and to remove them from their IT systems, including third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek. The order, Exclusion and Removal Order #2026-01 under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018, is dated 24 July 2026 and was published in the Federal Register on 20 October. It applies immediately; agencies that cannot comply could ask for an exception in writing within 60 days of the order's issuance.
What changed
What this event moves in the data we track, and what it leaves alone.
Governments with a verified restriction
33 · no change
Verified measures: 35 → 36
The United States government was already counted, from the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (Public Law 119-60), sec. 1532 (18 Dec 2025). This adds a measure to its record, not a government.
DeepSeek Bans by Country →DeepSeek: tracker numbers
No change
Its tracker measures six lenses (capability, output, money, compute, use and safety) from independent data. A restriction moves none of them directly; it shows there only if it moves one, such as use in the next survey.
DeepSeek →AI in the US: register of AI laws and rules
21 · no change
The register lists rules that apply to AI in general. Measures aimed at one company are logged here in the Record instead.
US →AI in the US: Rulebook score
74 · no change
The Rulebook scores eight things: binding AI rules, a strategy, an authority, a safety institute, a right to challenge automated decisions, rules on AI-generated content, international initiatives and the Council of Europe treaty. This is none of them.
US →AI in China: register and scores
No change
The measure is not China's own, so its register and scores do not change.
China →Computed from our trackers and the thread, not written by hand. Only verified events move a count. How the Record works
How we got here
Everything already on the record for the same company, country and question, on one timeline. Hover or tap a dot; the line marks this entry.
DeepSeek15 events · Model releases, funding, revenue milestones and Text Arena moves, from its tracker Open the tracker →
AI rules in the US27 events · Verified AI laws and rules: adopted (filled) and taking effect (open), from the register Open the tracker →
DeepSeek Bans by Country43 events · Verified (filled) and claimed (open) measures, from the thread Open the thread →
DeepSeek
AI rules in the US
DeepSeek Bans by Country
- Oct 2026United States: A FASCSA order excludes DeepSeek products from intelligence-community procurement and orders their removal from intelligence-community and SCI…
- Sep 2026United States: A FASCSA order from the Under Secretary of War bars buying, or contracting for, products that implement DeepSeek AI models, for defence and other…
- Dec 2025United States: Requires the Director of National Intelligence to issue standards, within 60 days, requiring removal of the DeepSeek application or any successor…
What the order requires
- Exclude DeepSeek, its affiliated entities and their products from civilian agency procurement, including approved product lists, service provider equipment lists and e-commerce markets, effective immediately.
- Remove products provided by DeepSeek and its affiliates, and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations, from civilian agency IT systems.
- Exceptions must be requested in writing within 60 days of issuance, with a justification and the alternative safeguards an agency would use. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reviews them.
- Until removal is complete, agencies are encouraged to monitor traffic, log activity and control data leaving the affected systems.
- Scope: federal civilian executive branch agencies. National security systems and secure compartmented information systems are outside it; those fall under the Defense Secretary and the Director of National Intelligence.
- Review: DHS must review the order within one year and every year after that.
Why DHS says it acted
The order points to DeepSeek's servers being located in China and to Chinese law, which it says gives the government extensive access to private company infrastructure. It also cites the personal information DeepSeek collects when users create accounts, the risk that prompts sent by government staff or vendors carry sensitive data to China, and security research that found multiple critical vulnerabilities in DeepSeek's iOS app.
In the data
DeepSeek is one of China's best-known AI developers, and China's output of leading models is growing. It produced 35 notable AI models in 2025, against 64 from the US, according to Epoch AI's database.
In the data: The US produced 64 notable AI models in 2025; China produced 35. Source: Epoch AI, 2026; chart and checks by AI Adoption.
What it means for vendors
The third-party clause reaches beyond DeepSeek's own apps. The order does not define "DeepSeek implementations" further, but its footnotes say it covers third-party implementations of DeepSeek used to provide products and services to agencies. A vendor running a DeepSeek model inside its own product therefore appears to be in scope, so suppliers to US civilian agencies have a reason to check which models their products are built on.
For DeepSeek's models and numbers, see our DeepSeek tracker and the AI Companies overview.
The bottom line
For civilian agencies the instruction is simple: stop buying DeepSeek and take it out. For their suppliers, the work is checking whether DeepSeek models sit inside their own products.
What to watch
Each of these becomes a new entry when it happens, linked back to this one.
- No date setException decisions. CISA approves or rejects requests in writing; the order does not say whether decisions will be published.
- No date setDefence and intelligence agencies, which this order does not cover, and whether they issue their own.
- by Jul 2027The first annual review, due within a year of the order.
Follow the story
ThreadDeepSeek Bans by Country36 governments with a verified restriction. Which governments have restricted DeepSeek, how, and since when?TrackerDeepSeekIts six lenses and full ledger.TrackerAI in the USProgress and Rulebook scores, and every AI law in its register.TrackerAI in ChinaProgress and Rulebook scores, and every AI law in its register.
Primary sources
- Federal Register: Notice of Order Regarding Exclusion and Removal of DeepSeek Products (91 FR 66346, 20 October 2026)
- The signed order, Exclusion and Removal Order #2026-01 (Federal Register PDF, pages 66347 to 66350)
- Regulations.gov docket DHS-2026-0628
25 Oct 2026: First published.; 26 Oct 2026: Our sourcing rule changed: the DeepSeek thread now keeps only measures with an official document. Governments with a verified restriction: 36 (33 when this entry was published); the change shown above is the one at publication.
Written from the primary documents with AI assistance and checked by an editor before publishing. How we work · Report an error