For 15 years, Autistici/Inventati had operated as a volunteer-run refuge for activists and campaigners seeking alternatives to commercial online platforms. Then a US terrorism designation forced the Italian technology collective to shut its doors. According to a recent report by the news agency Reuters, the group has now announced that it will end its services after the designation triggered the suspension of its .org domain and the closure of its bank account. The shutdown affects a substantial user base. The closure impacts about 16,000 mailboxes, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists and 10,000 blogs, according to figures from the US State Department.
A collective built on privacy-focused digital tools
Founded in 2001, Autistici/Inventati, known as A/I, provided privacy-focused email, websites, mailing lists and blogging services. Its stated purpose was to offer activists, campaigners and others a space outside mainstream commercial platforms, where data practices and content policies are often shaped by corporate interests.The organisation described itself in different terms than US officials. A/I rejected the terrorism designation, describing itself as a collective of volunteers and digital activists that provides digital self-defence tools for activists, individuals, groups and associations.
Washington’s designation set off a chain of consequences
The US designated the group on August 26, alleging it provided support to extremist activists and organisations through services including email accounts, websites and communications tools. The allegation triggered a rapid sequence of institutional responses that A/I said left it unable to continue operating, the Reuters report noted.Two days after the designation, autistici.org became unreachable after Public Interest Registry (PIR), the US-based operator of the .org domain, placed it on serverHold status. PIR said it was legally required to suspend the domain following the designation, framing its action as compliance rather than an independent judgment on the group’s activities.The financial consequences followed soon after. Banca Etica, an Italian lender where the collective held an account, subsequently suspended the account, citing sanctions-related risks. The bank criticised what it described as the use of US sanctions for political purposes, a characterisation that placed it at odds with the rationale behind Washington’s designation.
A group that says it tried to keep operating
In a statement announcing the closure, A/I told Reuters it had hoped to continue operating but could no longer do so responsibly. The collective described its initial response to the designation as one of defiance rather than immediate retreat. “The day we discovered we had been designated a global terrorist organisation, we promised that we would try to resist as long as this was possible,” the collective said.That resistance, however, gave way to concerns about the people connected to the organisation rather than the organisation itself. A/I said it had “a responsibility to protect our users” and could not ignore the risk that people associated with the organisation might face legal or financial consequences.
Weighing the risk to users over continued operation
The collective’s explanation centred on the potential fallout for people only loosely connected to its work, rather than on the designation’s direct effect on its own infrastructure. “The possibility that our work may cause legal and financial consequences to those who are close to us, or even only have something to do with us, leaves us no choice,” it said.The statement did not detail what legal avenues, if any, remain open to challenge the designation.
