Anthropic will prohibit users from engaging in sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward its Claude models under a revised usage policy that takes effect on 12 November 2026. The company says the rule targets only extreme cases in which users repeatedly act cruelly with no discernible purpose. Ordinary frustration, pushback, dark creative themes and legitimate model testing remain allowed. Conversation termination is the primary enforcement mechanism; Claude has been able to end persistently abusive chats since an earlier model-welfare experiment. Anthropic has not confirmed whether repeated violations could lead to account suspensions. The broader update also tightens rules on deceptive political and commercial campaigns, election interference, weapons-related software, non-consensual surveillance and autonomous hardware that could cause injury. A qualified operator must be able to observe and stop such equipment.
Anthropic will prohibit users from engaging in sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward its Claude models under a revised usage policy that takes effect on 12 November 2026. The company says the rule targets only extreme cases in which users repeatedly act cruelly with no discernible purpose. Ordinary frustration, pushback, dark creative themes and legitimate model testing remain allowed. Conversation termination is the primary enforcement mechanism; Claude has been able to end persistently abusive chats since an earlier model-welfare experiment. Anthropic has not confirmed whether repeated violations could lead to account suspensions. The broader update also tightens rules on deceptive political and commercial campaigns, election interference, weapons-related software, non-consensual surveillance and autonomous hardware that could cause injury. A qualified operator must be able to observe and stop such equipment.