DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab whose low-cost open models rattled Silicon Valley last year, is now off-limits across US federal civilian agencies. If you work at the Treasury, the State Department or the Justice Department, DeepSeek can no longer run on your work systems.
The Department of Homeland Security signed the order on July 24, made it public on October 19 and formally published it the next day. Agencies must remove DeepSeek products and stop buying them. The order covers civilian agencies, not the Department of Defense.
It reaches further than DeepSeek's own app
Here's the part that surprised many people: the ban also covers third-party products and services built using DeepSeek's AI models. Because those models are free to download and cheap to run, they've quietly ended up inside plenty of other software, sometimes without the people using it knowing.
DHS said DeepSeek poses multiple security risks, including the possible transfer of sensitive government data to China. China's foreign ministry responded that it would protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.
If you build or sell software, check this
The question is no longer just who sells you a tool, but which AI model sits underneath it. If your product runs on a DeepSeek model and you sell to US federal civilian agencies, this order affects you. Expect more customers to start asking what your AI is built on.
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Source: Federal Register