DHS Orders DeepSeek Removed From Federal Civilian IT
DHS published a Federal Register order on 20 October excluding Hangzhou DeepSeek AI products from federal civilian procurement and requiring their removal from civilian agency IT — including third-party products built using DeepSeek implementations. The notice text states no removal deadline.
Why It Matters
The order (Doc. 2026-21447, Docket DHS-2026-0628) is issued under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act (41 U.S.C. 1321-1328; 41 CFR 201-1). It covers DeepSeek and affiliates as defined in 48 CFR 2.101. The reach into third-party products developed using DeepSeek implementations is the part vendors should read closely: embedding or building on DeepSeek models can put a product in scope for federal civilian buyers.
The published notice states no compliance deadline or effective date, and the signed order appendix was not in the public-inspection PDF — so timing and scope details remain to be confirmed against the final Federal Register publication.
Action Items
Inventory exposure — list products and services sold to US federal civilian agencies that embed or are built on DeepSeek models.
Find the signed order — locate the signed order and any removal timeline on federalregister.gov before setting remediation dates.
Brief your federal sales and legal teams — flag contract and flow-down implications this week.
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