Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that from July 10, 2026, its employees will not be able to use Anthropic’s AI coding tool Claude Code in the office.
Tech News: Amid growing technological tensions between the US and China in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, China’s leading e-commerce and technology company Alibaba has decided to ban the use of American AI company Anthropic’s coding tool Claude Code for its employees. According to media reports, this ban will come into effect from July 10, 2026 and is being implemented after the company’s internal cyber security review.
According to reports, Alibaba has added Claude Code to its banned software list and advised employees to use the company-approved alternative AI tool Qoder instead. However, no detailed official statement on this decision has been made public by Alibaba or Anthropic.
Decision taken after security review
According to the report of Chinese business media Yicai, Alibaba considered Claude Code as high risk software after internal investigation. The report claimed that the company found indications that raised security concerns regarding a possible backdoor or unauthorized access. In technical language, backdoor is the mechanism through which any software can provide special access to the system without the user’s knowledge.
If such a mechanism is in place, the security of sensitive data, business information or other confidential information may be affected. However, these allegations have not been independently confirmed.
Accusations made against Anthropic
Alibaba alleges that the alleged mechanisms in Claude Code could pose a potential risk to the company’s internal data, user information, passwords and trade secrets, Dutch technology publication Techzine reports. However, no public technical reports or official test results have been released to support these claims. Therefore, independent confirmation of these allegations is not available at this time.
According to media reports, the debate surrounding Claude Code intensified following a post by a Reddit user who claimed to have reverse-engineered the tool. The post alleged that the software contained a mechanism that some linked to a potential surveillance or data security risk.
Anthropic has not issued a formal press release on these claims. However, a member of the Claude Code team said in an online discussion that the mechanism in question was allegedly aimed at preventing activities such as unauthorized sale of accounts and AI model distillation. He also indicated that this arrangement may be removed in an upcoming version.
New developments amid US-China AI competition
This development has come to light at a time when competition between the US and China over AI technology, data security and intellectual property is increasing. According to reports, in June 2026, Anthropic had accused Alibaba’s AI unit Qwen Lab of allegedly creating thousands of fake accounts to access its systems and perform data-related activities. Alibaba did not publicly respond in detail to the allegations.
Now many analysts are seeing the ban imposed on Claude Code in the context of increasing technological and commercial tensions between the two companies. However, independent verification of the allegations in both cases is not available and detailed official findings have not been released by the respective companies.
Increasing importance of data security in AI industry
The use of AI based coding tools and large language models (LLMs) is rapidly increasing in companies around the world. Along with this, data privacy, cyber security and protection of intellectual property have also become a matter of major concern. Experts believe that companies are now giving priority to AI platforms that can ensure the security of sensitive business information. This is why many global organizations are implementing different security policies for AI tools used by employees.
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