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Rule changeGovernmentFrontierUSConfirmed

DHS orders DeepSeek products out of federal civilian IT systems and procurement

See how this story connects

Source: Federal Register, notice 2026-21447 (DHS notice and order)Also reported by Federal Register public inspection PDF (19 Oct 2026), Reuters via The Economic Times, Reuters via The Hindu, South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post, 21 Oct 2026 (China’s reaction and industry views)

The Department of Homeland Security published notice of Exclusion and Removal Order 2026-01, signed by Secretary Markwayne Mullin and dated 24 July 2026, under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018. The order requires every federal civilian executive branch agency to exclude Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., its affiliates and their products from procurements, including approved product lists and e-commerce markets, and to remove DeepSeek products and third-party products and services built on DeepSeek implementations from agency IT systems, both immediately on issuance. Agencies may ask CISA for an exception in writing within 60 days, with justification and alternative mitigations. National security systems, the Department of War and the intelligence community are outside its scope. DHS wrote that DeepSeek’s models present multiple threat vectors, that use by government employees or vendors may result in the transfer of sensitive data to the PRC, and that the models may contain malware or other security vulnerabilities. The Secretary will review the order within a year and annually thereafter. The notice was filed on 19 October 2026 and published in the Federal Register on 20 October (91 FR 66346, docket DHS-2026-0628). China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on 20 October that Beijing opposed the overextension of national security concepts, and the commerce ministry called the order discriminatory and asked Washington to revoke it.

Why it matters

It is the first FASCSA order issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security for civilian systems, and it bars DeepSeek’s own products and any third-party service built on DeepSeek models from civilian agencies.

When
19 Oct 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0331
Who
Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Acquisition Security Council, DeepSeek, Office of Management and Budget; Markwayne Mullin, Russell Vought
Rules involved

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Federal Register, notice 2026-21447 (DHS notice and order) and the reporting credited above. Checked against the source on 21 Oct 2026.

Read the original at Federal Register, notice 2026-21447 (DHS notice and order)

Source copy: download the page as saved on 20 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: What happened nextDeepSeek reported to have raised about 100 billion yuan from CATL, Tencent and others

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0331: “DHS orders DeepSeek products out of federal civilian IT systems and procurement.” wheresthe.ai, 19 Oct 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-dhs-fascsa-order-removes-deepseek-civilian-agencies-2026-10/ (source: Federal Register, notice 2026-21447 (DHS notice and order)).

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