Transparency Update: FBI also subpoenaed Google about AnarchistFederation.net

Earlier this month, we published a transparency notice after we learned that the FBI sent a subpoena to Cloudflare related to AnarchistFederation.net, a site hosted by No Gods No Masters. Since publishing this notice, we have learned of another significant development.

Today, Google informed us that it also received a legal demand from the Federal Bureau of Investigation relating to AnarchistFederation.net. Like Cloudflare, Google was prohibited from notifying us while the investigation was under seal and only informed us after the nondisclosure order expired.

At this stage, we know only that the FBI served Google with legal process connected to the same matter. We have not been told what information was requested or the reasons behind it. The fact that both Cloudflare and Google received separate FBI legal demands suggests that investigators sought information from multiple third-party service providers.

Importantly, this does not change our previous assessment regarding the privacy of our community. Google does not host our servers, our databases, our forums, or our user data. Our self-hosted infrastructure remains outside the control of Google, just as it remains outside the control of Cloudflare. There is still no indication that law enforcement has accessed our servers, our databases, or any user information stored on our infrastructure.

To manage our Cloudflare account, our team uses six separate email addresses, one for each administrator with access to the account. Based on the information provided to us, only one of those email addresses was the subject of the FBI’s legal process: anarchotechteam@gmail.com, an old Gmail address that is no longer actively used. More than two years ago, we migrated this mailbox to Proton Mail, with end-to-end encryption. The Gmail account has remained in existence solely for administrative compatibility and technical purposes, but our day-to-day communications no longer take place through Google.

We are currently reviewing Google’s notification with our legal team and will publish any additional information that can be lawfully disclosed. As always, our commitment is simple: whenever we learn new facts, our community will learn them as well.