DHS orders DeepSeek removed from federal civilian agencies

The order is the latest step in a U.S. crackdown that had been building since DeepSeek stunned the tech industry with its R1 model last year. R1 was trained using less powerful chips and at a fraction of the cost of some competing models, yet outperformed models from OpenAI and Anthropic in several complex tests. That combination of low cost and strong performance is the backdrop for the security concerns now driving federal action.

The new DHS order goes beyond earlier restrictions. The Commerce Department had already banned DeepSeek from government devices, the U.S. Navy directed its members not to use the model, and New York State barred it from government devices and networks over data privacy and censorship concerns. The DHS order extends the removal requirement to all civilian agency IT systems and covers third-party services built using the app, which may complicate vendor relationships.

DeepSeek, meanwhile, continues to release new models. It recently introduced V4.1 Flash-1017, promising faster performance and improved reasoning and coding, with early reports suggesting it could compete with some of the most advanced American AI systems. The order does not address those newer models by name, but its ban on affiliated products and future purchases would appear to cover them.