DHS orders federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products, bars new purchases

The US Department of Homeland Security on Monday ordered federal civilian executive-branch agencies to stop buying technology products from Chinese AI lab DeepSeek and to remove existing ones. The order, issued under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 and published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, applies to civilian agencies, not the Defense Department.

DHS order covers DeepSeek products and third-party services. The order bars new purchases of DeepSeek products and services and requires agencies to remove all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products along with third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations. Compliance is complicated because the order does not define which third-party offerings qualify or whether ongoing API access counts as development.

AI gateways create inadvertent usage risks. Services such as OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway route requests to DeepSeek models by default when they select the best available provider. Agencies using these gateways without explicit restrictions could access DeepSeek models without realizing it.

Defense and state governments acted earlier. The Defense Information Systems Agency began blocking DeepSeek on Pentagon networks in January 2025. The US Navy, NASA, the US House of Representatives, and multiple states have taken similar steps since then.

Legislative effort stalled in Congress. US Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act on February 6, 2025, with US Representative Darin LaHood (R-IL), citing national security concerns over data capture. The bill did not advance beyond committee.

Order timing affects US AI market competition. The restriction limits government access to lower-cost open-weight models from China at a moment when companies such as Anthropic prepare for public offerings. Taxpayers funding restricted agencies may face higher prices from domestic model providers as a result.