Anthropic blocks OpenClaw founder from accessing Claude
What's the story
Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, temporarily suspended Peter Steinberger, the founder of AI agent platform OpenClaw. The suspension was imposed over "suspicious" activity on his account. Steinberger shared an image of the suspension notice he received from Anthropic regarding the suspension of his access to Claude, their AI model.
Account restoration
Access to Claude revoked
The email from Anthropic stated, "An internal investigation of suspicious signals associated with your account indicates a violation of our Usage Policy. As a result, we have revoked your access to Claude." However, the ban was short-lived as Steinberger announced a few hours later that his account had been reinstated. He thanked everyone for their support during this time.
Possible reasons
Steinberger speculates on possible reasons for ban
While Anthropic hasn't officially explained why it suspended Steinberger's account, he hinted that his work on a Claude feature could have triggered the action. He said he was trying to get the "claude -p fallback feature" working after Boris confirmed it was a classifier bug and not intentional. Despite being blocked, Steinberger continued his efforts, which may have contributed to his temporary ban.
Policy change
Steinberger continues to enhance OpenClaw despite ban
Earlier this week, Anthropic announced its decision to ban third-party AI agent platforms like OpenClaw from using Claude. The move was prompted by the massive infrastructure burden these platforms were placing on their system. Despite the ban, Steinberger has continued to work on improving OpenClaw and often seeks user feedback on how to enhance the platform's performance.
Twitter Post
The account has now been reinstated
Yeah folks, it's gonna be harder in the future to ensure OpenClaw still works with Anthropic models. pic.twitter.com/U6F8GZvPcH
— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) April 10, 2026