AI: Alibaba bans Claude from its employees

We are far from Donald Trump’s visit to China, which was supposed to mark a new era of cooperation. Since then, financial, technological, and trade tensions have only intensified between the two giants. Alibaba has just provided striking evidence by banning its employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code tool. But behind this decision lies a story of industrial espionage, fake accounts, and technological warfare. A paradox: to protect its artificial intelligence, Anthropic may have betrayed the trust of its users.

Spy or protector? Anthropic’s double game with its AI

On July 10, 2026, Alibaba classified Claude Code as “high risk” software. Why? Researchers discovered that Anthropic had hidden code capable of detecting Chinese users. 

Anthropic integrated spyware-type code hidden in Claude Code that secretly targets Chinese users. It then sends information about each user by injecting it into their request message.

Source: International Cyber Digest, X, June 30, 2026. 

The mechanism is sly. The code checks the timezone, proxy configuration, and affiliation with a Chinese AI lab. Then it subtly alters the messages sent to the server. 

Developers who give Claude Code full access to their systems felt betrayed. The contradiction is striking: Anthropic justifies this intrusion by the protection of its intellectual property. 

But can you protect your secrets by spying on those who use your tools? The ethics of this approach raise questions.

25,000 fake accounts: did Alibaba copy Claude?

Behind this scandal hides a much larger confrontation. Anthropic accuses Alibaba of conducting a massive “distillation” campaign. Approximately 25,000 fake accounts were allegedly created to extract Claude’s capabilities and improve Qwen, the Chinese giant’s in-house model. 

Hello, this is an experiment we launched in March to prevent account abuses by unauthorized resellers and to protect against distillation.

Source: Thariq Shihipar, Anthropic, X, June 30, 2026. 

In response, Alibaba banned the tool and imposed its own platform, Qoder, on its teams. But the question remains: Did Alibaba really copy Claude? And if so, is Anthropic justified in spying on all its Chinese users to catch offenders? 

The debate is troubling: both companies toss accusations of dishonesty back and forth.

How far can you spy to protect your secrets?

This standoff is only one episode of the technological war between the United States and China. Anthropic has already been subject to emergency export controls by the U.S. government. 

Alibaba develops its own models to reduce its dependence on American technologies. Distillation has become a strategic battlefield. 

However, the method used by Anthropic raises a fundamental question: can you spy on your users in the name of protecting your secrets? The community’s reaction is divided. Some believe it is a common telemetry practice. Others see it as a privacy violation. 

A user sums up the irony of the situation on Reddit: “If you’re angry about this, wait till you find out what web browsers do…” — Source: Reddit, r/ClaudeAI, June 30, 2026. 

Developers’ trust is shaken. And in this artificial intelligence war, one question remains: how far are companies willing to go to protect their secrets?

Key dates of the scandal

• March 2026: Anthropic launches the experiment;
• April 2, 2026: Claude Code version 2.1.91;
• June 30, 2026: revelation of the hidden code;
• July 10, 2026: Alibaba ban.

The AI war is far from over. It is fought on all fronts: technological, commercial, and now ethical. China is also striking on other fronts, such as rare earths and defense, where it imposes its conditions on American companies. Anthropic and Alibaba are just players in a much larger confrontation, whose consequences go far beyond simple commercial rivalry.