Hong Kong users caught offguard as Anthropic tightens VPN access to Claude

Hong Kong users caught off guard as Anthropic tightens VPN access to Claude

Some tech-savvy users are bypassing the blocks by routing connections through Singapore via VPNs and registering with foreign payment details

US artificial intelligence company Anthropic appears to have stepped up enforcement of geographical restrictions on its Claude models in Hong Kong, with local users reporting abrupt account suspensions after accessing the service through virtual private networks (VPNs).

A wave of complaints surfaced on social media platforms X and Reddit on Thursday, as users who had operated accounts for months using VPNs found them suddenly disabled.

One Hong Kong-based user posted on the “r/claude” subreddit that they received an email from Anthropic’s safeguards team citing “suspicious signals” associated with their account, which would be revoked for usage policy violations.

“I used it with NordVPN from Hong Kong for six months and today this happened,” the user wrote, adding that they were trying to retrieve their conversation history and data.