Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati shuts down after US terrorist designation

Autistici/Inventati, an Italian volunteer technology collective that has provided privacy-focused digital services since 2001, said it would shut down after a US terrorism designation cut off its domain and bank account.

The closure affects about 16,000 mailboxes, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists and 10,000 blogs, according to the US State Department. The collective serves activists, campaigners and others seeking alternatives to commercial platforms, offering email, websites, mailing lists and blogging services.

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The day we discovered we had been designated a global terrorist organization, we promised that we would try to resist as long as this was possible.

The United States designated A/I on August 26, alleging that it supported extremist activists and organizations through email accounts, websites and communications tools. A/I rejected the designation, describing itself as a volunteer collective and a group of digital activists providing self-defense tools to individuals, groups and associations.

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A responsibility to protect our users.

Two days after the designation, autistici.org became unreachable after Public Interest Registry, the US-based operator of the .org domain, placed it on serverHold status. PIR said it had a legal obligation to suspend the domain. Banca Etica, the Italian lender where A/I held an account, also suspended it, citing sanctions-related risks. The bank criticized what it called the political use of US sanctions.

A/I said it had promised to resist after learning it had been designated a global terrorist organization. But it said it had

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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.