Since June 2026, Anthropic’s Claude Code has abruptly banned hundreds of thousands of accounts, embedding a covert environment‑detection routine that uses steganography to flag Chinese time zones and proxy domains, while the appeal process is broken and the company’s explanations have sparked widespread criticism.
Anthropic recently added a server‑side credential check that blocks third‑party tools using Claude Code, updated its terms to forbid OAuth tokens in external clients, and began banning accounts—affecting OpenCode, OpenClaw, Cline, RooCode, and others—while offering three compliance paths: switch to API keys, use only official channels, or replace Claude with alternative models.
A wave of unexpected ChatGPT account bans has sparked panic across social platforms, with users reporting locked accounts, halted registrations, and malfunctioning Plus subscriptions, while speculation ranges from mass‑registration sweeps to API misuse, prompting advice on detection and appeal procedures.
