DeepSeek has spent the past year making a name for itself in artificial intelligence. Now the Trump administration is kicking it out, and not a moment too soon.
The Trump administration has ordered civilian federal agencies to remove DeepSeek from their computers and stop purchasing its products. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin signed the order July 24, but it did not become public until Monday. It covers software developed by the Chinese company, its affiliates, and outside vendors incorporating DeepSeek technology. The order also gives agencies a process for requesting exceptions, though DHS will have the final say.
DeepSeek's headquarters are in Hangzhou, China. DHS says its servers are there, too. That last detail should alarm every American. Under Chinese law, government authorities can demand access to information held by private companies, including material Americans might reasonably assume would remain confidential. For Washington, the prospect of federal employees feeding information into such a system was apparently enough to warrant an outright prohibition.
The DHS order does not hedge much on that point:
"DeepSeek's models present multiple threat vectors. DeepSeek servers are located in the PRC, and the PRC legal system permits extensive authority to government cyber and intelligence functions to access private company infrastructure."
Think about what Beijing could do with that. Personnel records, internal communications, agency planning, and other material that foreign intelligence services would undoubtedly love to get their hands on.
DeepSeek's AI technology processes user-submitted prompts. According to the order, the company's hosted systems can collect personally identifiable information and track users' digital fingerprints. DHS warns that information could potentially be transferred to China, where combining it with other available data could help intelligence services identify Americans or obtain details about government operations.
And then the order gets even more blunt:
"The transfer of the aforementioned information to the PRC, either independently or in combination with publicly available data, could produce actionable intelligence on U.S. persons and/or government programs. The models themselves may contain malware or other security vulnerabilities. Indeed, open-source security research has found that the DeepSeek iOS mobile application contains multiple critical vulnerabilities."
If that does not disqualify a piece of software from federal use, nothing does.
The order doesn't stop with the main company, either. It also reaches affiliated entities and third-party products built on DeepSeek implementations. In other words, agencies can't keep using the same underlying technology just because it comes wrapped in someone else’s packaging.
DHS also recommended monitoring network traffic, strengthening controls against data theft, and flagging suspicious activity while removing the products. Those precautions suggest officials are concerned about potential exposure from already installed technology.
The administration's latest disclosure follows earlier restrictions. The Commerce Department and Navy previously blocked DeepSeek on government devices, while Virginia, Tennessee, and New York, among others, took similar action.
There is some added history here. Federal agencies had already been deciding for themselves whether to allow DeepSeek, sometimes blocking it outright. The new DHS order takes away much of that discretion. Agencies with a legitimate reason to keep using the software can request an exception, but they must provide a written explanation within 60 days of the order. CISA then reviews the request and decides whether the agency has made its case.
The Trump administration has also been restricting other Chinese technology, including drones, routers, and telecommunications equipment. China has poured resources into developing AI that can compete with American companies, and DeepSeek's low-cost models have attracted considerable attention. None of that changes where the company operates or the laws it answers to. The federal government has enough information worth stealing without providing a Chinese AI company another possible route to it.
The Trump administration has drawn a firm line with DeepSeek. The federal government's information is not something China should have an opportunity to collect through an AI chatbot.
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