Anthropic has published a new version of its Usage Policy, effective November 12, following a year in which Claude has taken on longer, more independent work. The company says most updates clarify existing rules rather than change enforcement, drawing on new patterns of misuse observed in influence operations, weapons development, and surveillance, as documented in its latest threat intelligence report.

The policy consolidates scattered restrictions on fake accounts, fabricated news sites, and obscured messaging into a new section, Do Not Engage in Deceptive Campaigns or Artificial Activity. It applies to deceptive activity of any kind, political or commercial, including efforts to hide who is behind a message, amplify content through fake accounts or posts, and building the tools or infrastructure for running influence-operation campaigns.

The elections section has been refocused and renamed Do Not Undermine Democratic Processes, targeting deception of voters or disruption of elections: false information about candidates or voting, impersonating candidates or election officials, and suppressing turnout. At the same time, Anthropic removed its blanket prohibition on personalized vote and campaign targeting, which it says had covered legitimate civic work such as nonprofits using Claude to write voter information in other languages and election officials sending ballot cure notices. The behaviors behind the original rule, such as voter targeting that relies on deception or misuse of personal data, remain prohibited under the deceptive campaigns, surveillance, and privacy sections.

The weapons section now makes explicit that its prohibitions include the software and components that make weapons work, such as guidance and control software, and actions like arming drones and other autonomous vehicles. Anthropic says this reflects how the previous policy was already enforced. Similarly, the surveillance and criminal justice section was rewritten to state more precisely what is prohibited: tracking people without consent, whether in real time or through analysis of previously collected data; deciding or recommending who to investigate, arrest, or charge in a law enforcement or criminal justice process; and building or improving tools designed for surveillance. Permitted uses it spells out include tracking that people have agreed to, such as fraud monitoring, plus content moderation, journalism, and legal research.

High-risk use case requirements are unchanged in substance but rewritten to answer whether a given use case is covered. The section now lists which kinds of recommendations require a qualified human in the loop and disclosure that AI was used, in areas affecting health, legal rights, finances, livelihood, or access to essential services. Following the launch of the Model Hardware Standard, it also adds requirements for models connected to hardware that takes autonomous physical actions and might be capable of causing injury: a qualified operator must be able to observe and stop the equipment, and the equipment must hold a safe state if Claude is disconnected.

A new prohibition targets sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward models, intended only for extreme cases where users repeatedly act cruelly with no discernible purpose. It does not apply to ordinary user frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or model testing and research. This aligns with Claude‘s existing ability to end rare conversations with persistently abusive users on Claude.ai and Claude Code, which remains the primary enforcement mechanism.

Finally, the Supported Regions Policy is clarified: Claude may not be used by people physically located in an unsupported region, by entities incorporated or headquartered there, or by entities majority-owned or controlled by persons or entities in those regions. Anthropic says it will keep updating the policy as capabilities and risks change, with input from across the company, policymakers, subject matter experts, civil society, and product users.