Anthropic · Anthropic API Usage Policy · View original document ↗

Prohibited Psychological Manipulation and Harmful Content

Medium severity Unique · 0 of 325 platforms
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This analysis describes what Anthropic's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology

ConductAtlas Analysis

Why it matters (compliance & governance perspective)

The prohibition on psychological manipulation directly mirrors EU AI Act Art. 5(1)(a) prohibited practices for subliminal manipulation — making this provision one of the strongest alignment points between Anthropic's AUP and emerging hard law.

Recent Activity

This document changed recently

High Feb 27, 2026

Defense contractors and federal agencies using Claude must find alternatives. Enterprise customers with defense-adjacent business face compliance risk.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

Anthropic's AUP directly affects what you can ask Claude to do — violations can result in your account being throttled, suspended, or permanently terminated without prior notice. For users of third-party apps built on Claude, the policy applies equally, meaning the app developer's failure to comply can affect your access too. You can report harmful or inaccurate AI outputs at usersafety@anthropic.com or via the in-product thumbs-down feedback feature.

How other platforms handle this

Amazon Medium

You may not use, or facilitate or allow others to use, the Services to make available content that is illegal, harmful, fraudulent, deceptive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.

Runway Medium

You may not use Runway's tools to create content that promotes, glorifies, or facilitates acts of terrorism, mass violence, or genocide, or that could be used to provide material support to individuals or organizations engaged in such activities.

Midjourney Medium

Do not generate images for political campaigns or to try to influence the outcome of an election. Do not generate images to spread misinformation or disinformation. Do not generate images to attempt to or to actually deceive or defraud anyone. Do not intentionally mislead recipients of generated ima...

See all platforms with this clause type →

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▸ View Original Clause Language DOCUMENT RECORD
"
Do Not Create Psychologically or Emotionally Harmful Content

— Excerpt from Anthropic's Anthropic API Usage Policy

Applicable regulations

CFAA
United States Federal
DMCA
United States Federal
DSA
European Union
Trump Executive Order on AI Policy Framework
US

Provision details

Document information
Document
Anthropic API Usage Policy
Entity
Anthropic
Document last updated
May 11, 2026
Tracking information
First tracked
March 6, 2026
Last verified
April 28, 2026
Record ID
CA-P-002140
Document ID
CA-D-00013
Evidence Provenance
Source URL
Wayback Machine
Content hash (SHA-256)
fe6f60bf15130bb0c59c7054ad8111501f08769394cd72b598d456d524e13f2e
Analysis generated
March 6, 2026 20:36 UTC
Methodology
Evidence
✓ Snapshot stored   ✓ Hash verified
Citation Record
Entity: Anthropic
Document: Anthropic API Usage Policy
Record ID: CA-P-002140
Captured: 2026-03-06 20:36:08 UTC
SHA-256: fe6f60bf15130bb0…
URL: https://conductatlas.com/platform/anthropic/anthropic-api-usage-policy/prohibited-psychological-manipulation-and-harmful-content/
Accessed: May 13, 2026
Permanent archival reference. Stable identifier suitable for legal filings, compliance documentation, and research citation.
Classification
Severity
Medium
Categories

Other risks in this policy

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Built from archived source documents, structured governance mappings, and historical version tracking.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Anthropic's Prohibited Psychological Manipulation and Harmful Content clause do?

The prohibition on psychological manipulation directly mirrors EU AI Act Art. 5(1)(a) prohibited practices for subliminal manipulation — making this provision one of the strongest alignment points between Anthropic's AUP and emerging hard law.

Is ConductAtlas affiliated with Anthropic?

No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic.