AI startup Anthropic has updated its Claude’s “Supported Regions Policy” and the new regulations will officially take effect on November 12, 2026. In addition to restricting users in unsupported regions such as China and Russia, Anthropic has also explicitly extended the scope of restrictions to the company's registration place, headquarters location, and direct or indirect equity and control relationships.
Even if a company sets up a company in supported regions such as the United States and Singapore, it may still be unable to legally use Claude as long as it is majority owned or controlled by individuals or entities in unsupported regions. Taiwan continues to be on the official support list.
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Claude's restrictions don't just look at IP: the company's registration location and ultimate control are also included in the review
According to Anthropic's latest support region policy, this specification not only applies to the Claude.ai chat service, but also covers Claude Code, Cowork, Anthropic API, developer platform, and Claude models provided through cloud platforms and authorized resellers.
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Officials clearly list three situations as prohibited use. First, anyone physically located in an unsupported region is prohibited from using Claude, even if they work for a company legally established in a supported region. Secondly, companies registered or headquartered in unsupported areas are still subject to restrictions even if their employees are in other countries.
Third, and a noteworthy part of this policy, as long as a company is directly or indirectly majority-owned or controlled by individuals or entities in unsupported areas, even if the company itself is registered in a supported area, it is not eligible for use.
This means that simply using overseas subsidiaries, changing corporate registration locations, or having employees work overseas may not necessarily circumvent Anthropic's regional restrictions. For multinational AI development teams, whether they can use Claude is not just a matter of network connection location, but also involves the company's equity structure, ultimate control and compliance review.
China and Hong Kong are not included in the list, but Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan are supported.
Judging from Anthropic's official list, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India and most European countries are still supported areas, while mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau are not separately included in the support list.
Since the policy clearly states that all countries or regions not listed are not supported, businesses and users in mainland China and Hong Kong face restrictions. As for special administrative regions such as Macao, attention must still be paid to the policy provisions regarding the territories affiliated with the supported countries. It cannot be presumed that all specific situations are prohibited just because they are not listed separately.
Illegal use may lead to account suspension: Anthropic has established detection, identity verification and suspension mechanisms
In addition to expressly restricting usage qualifications, Anthropic also stated that it will implement regional policies through technical detection and monitoring mechanisms. According to the company's official Transparency Hub, if a user is found to have violated the "Usage Policy", "Terms of Service" or "Support Region Policy", Anthropic can take measures to warn, suspend services, or even terminate the user's access to products and services. In other words, violating regional restrictions will not only prevent you from using Claude normally, but may also result in account suspension or permanent ban.
Anthropic's threat intelligence report released in September 2026 further explained the actual law enforcement methods: When the system detects that Claude has been resold without authorization, or the account is suspected to be operated from unsupported regions such as China, Russia, and Iran, the user may be required to perform identity verification to confirm whether they are eligible for use; accounts that fail to pass verification will be banned.
The report also revealed that Anthropic has actually banned multiple accounts for violating regional policies. For example, when the company investigated research activities involving unsupported regions, it banned the accounts of relevant researchers in May 2026; two other accounts were banned for violating the Supported Regions Policy.
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