Anthropic bans using Claude to seed fake sources for AI answers
Anthropic's updated usage policy, effective 12 November, bars people from using Claude to seed the sources that search engines and AI systems draw answers from with content that misrepresents its origin, authorship or independence. The policy gives the example of networks of sites posing as unaffiliated sources that corroborate the same claims.
The clause sits in a new section called Do Not Engage in Deceptive Campaigns or Artificial Activity. It also prohibits fake personas, outlets and reviews, spreading content through ostensibly independent outlets or accounts to hide a shared source, building tools for deceptive campaigns, and selling any of these activities as a service. Suspected violations can lead to suspended or terminated access.
Anthropic said the practices were already banned, but the rules were scattered across sections on elections, fraud, privacy and disinformation. The new section covers deceptive activity whether political or commercial. The September 2025 version of the policy did not mention search engines or AI responses.
The company ties the section to its September threat intelligence report, which described about 70 sites posing as independent local news outlets and linked to a France-based ad agency. Claude was used to generate articles in a consistent format with three to four internal links each for automated publishing, and the network ran at least 8,913 articles across roughly 20 languages. Anthropic removed the account and banned the organisation.
The new policy also drops publishing from its list of high-risk uses, which now names 11 areas including legal, medical and financial advice. Requirements for those uses are unchanged. Google's spam policies already treat attempts to manipulate generative AI responses in Search as spam, but Google enforces against websites while Anthropic enforces against Claude users.
Reported by Search Engine Journal ↗
Topics: Claude, Search policy, Citations