Italian Hosting Collective Autistici/Inventati Shuts Down After US Terrorist Designation
Autistici/Inventati, an Italian nonprofit that has hosted email, websites, mailing lists, and blogs for activists since 2001, is closing down. The collective said it will discontinue all services and help users retrieve their data, eleven days after the United States listed it as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
Background
The designation was announced by the State Department on August 26. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added the organization to the Specially Designated Nationals list (SDN), giving an address in San Giuliano Terme in the province of Pisa. Alongside it, OFAC issued Counter Terrorism General License 36, authorizing the wind-down of transactions involving the collective, with a reported close date of September 25.
Washington claims Autistici/Inventati supplied digital infrastructure, tools, and services to violent antifa cells and other groups deemed extremist by the US. The collective denies this, describing its work as digital self-defense tools for activists, individuals, and associations, and stating that antifascism and anticapitalism are not terrorism.
Events Following Designation
- August 27: The PayPal account was suspended.
- August 28: The autistici.org domain stopped resolving after Public Interest Registry placed it in serverHold. The NoBlogs platform suffered a cyberattack.
- September 1: Banca Etica suspended the bank account as a precautionary measure, despite criticizing the designation publicly.
Impact and Response
The collective’s closure is significant due to the ripple effects of the SDN listing, which led to the loss of its .org domain, payment processor, and bank within a week, impacting roughly 16,000 mailboxes and 10,000 blogs.
They framed their decision as one taken to protect users and volunteers from potential legal and financial consequences stemming from their association with the organization.