US bans federal agencies from using DeepSeek's AI products on security grounds

The US government announced a ban on federal agencies using all products and services of Chinese AI company DeepSeek; the restriction was formally issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and requires the immediate removal of these tools from government networks to prevent sensitive data from potentially flowing to Beijing; the Trump administration considers the company's technology a potential espionage threat to national security. The directive provides strict exemptions only for the Department of War and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and other agencies must submit exemption applications within 60 days for assessment by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Reasons cited by DHS include DeepSeek's servers being located in China, its registration process collecting personally identifiable information and device fingerprints, officials potentially leaking classified information through prompt queries, and security researchers warning that its iOS app has malware and serious vulnerabilities. Previously, Belgium, Italy and Taiwan fully banned government personnel from using DeepSeek, and Canada, India, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic imposed partial restrictions on public sector employees.