US government orders DeepSeek off federal civilian computers

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered civilian federal agencies to remove products from the Chinese AI company DeepSeek and to stop buying them. The order also covers DeepSeek's affiliates and third-party products and services "developed using DeepSeek implementations." It applies to agencies such as Treasury, State and Justice, but not to the Defense Department. DHS filed the notice publicly on Monday morning (8:45 AM Eastern, 5:45 AM PT) and it is due to appear in the Federal Register on Tuesday, Oct 20. The signed order itself is months old: CyberScoop reads the attached letter as dated June 26, while the BBC says the ban took effect at the end of July. The order cites risks such as user data being stored on servers in China. CyberScoop reports that agencies can ask for exceptions, but only 60 days in advance and with a "compelling justification."

What this means for you: if you're an individual or a private company, nothing changes today. This covers federal civilian agencies, not you. If you sell software to those agencies, the "developed using DeepSeek implementations" wording means a product built on DeepSeek models could be caught even if it isn't DeepSeek's own app, so expect customers to ask what models you use. DeepSeek is the only company named. CyberScoop notes that officials have raised similar concerns about other Chinese open-weight models, such as Kimi and Qwen.