Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI company, has complied with a directive from the Trump administration ordering it to block foreign nationals from accessing its most advanced models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. The company announced the suspension late Friday, citing a letter from the US government received at 5:21pm ET that raised national security concerns.
The ban applies to foreign nationals both inside and outside the United States, including foreign employees of Anthropic itself. In a blog post, the company said it was forced to abruptly disable the models for all customers to ensure compliance, though access to other Anthropic models remains unaffected.
Anthropic explained that the directive stemmed from a potential jailbreak vulnerability in Fable 5—a technique where hackers bypass ethical safeguards to perform restricted actions. The company downplayed the severity, describing the vulnerabilities as “relatively simple” and noting that publicly available models could identify them. It stressed that it had developed strong safeguards to reduce misuse related to cybersecurity tasks.
“We disagree that a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people,” Anthropic stated, while apologizing for the disruption and working to restore access as soon as possible.
European Reactions: Sovereignty and Dependence
The move has drawn sharp reactions from European politicians, who see it as a stark reminder of the geopolitical stakes in artificial intelligence. Jordan Bardella, a Member of the European Parliament and president of France’s far-right National Rally party, posted on X that AI is a “major issue of national sovereignty.” He urged France to accelerate support for its homegrown AI champion, Mistral AI, and the broader ecosystem, warning that nations without their own models will remain dependent on other powers.
Tom Tugendhat, a British MP and former security minister, echoed the sentiment, writing that disabling models for foreigners is “not a misunderstanding or a mistake, it’s the inevitable result of technology shaping warfare so that sovereignty is more about code than cannons.”
This is not the first clash between Anthropic and the Trump administration. In February, Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology after CEO Dario Amodei objected to its use for certain defense purposes. Trump wrote on Truth Social that his administration would phase out the relationship over six months.
The incident highlights the growing tension between US tech dominance and European efforts to build independent AI capabilities. As the European Union advances its AI Act and member states like France invest in models such as Mistral AI, the question of digital sovereignty becomes increasingly urgent. For now, European users of Fable 5 and Mythos 5—including researchers, businesses, and developers—face an abrupt halt, underscoring the risks of relying on non-European infrastructure.
Anthropic’s compliance with the US directive also raises questions about the extraterritorial reach of American policy. The company’s decision to block foreign nationals globally, rather than just within the US, sets a precedent that could influence how other AI firms navigate similar orders. As the continent watches, the debate over AI sovereignty is likely to intensify, particularly in Brussels and national capitals like Paris and Berlin.
