Solidarity and Counterattack – On the classification of Autistici/Inventati as “Global Terrorists”

The US government's sanctions against the Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati are a direct attack on our structures.

Let’s support those affected and defend our communication platforms!

Classification as “Global Terrorists” on 26.

In August 2026, the US government imposed sanctions on the left-wing Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati and classified them as “global terrorists”.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claims the measure would address “the growing threat posed by violent left-wing radical terrorist groups.”

The Trump administration justifies the sanctions by saying that the collective allegedly “provides specialized digital architecture, tools and services for Antifa cells and other violent left-wing extremists.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on X: Far-left terrorism poses a profound threat to the United States and the broader West.

Today, the United States sanctioned several transnational far-left terrorist networks, including Autistici/Inventati – a major far-left tech collective whose services are used by the most active and violent Antifa cells in the United States and across the world.

There will be no refuge for violent extremists who wage war on our civilization and plot to undermine law and order, destroy critical infrastructure, assault political opponents, or conspire to conceal their crimes from authorities.

We will use all the tools and authorities at our disposal to fight terrorism and protect our way of life from terrorist coercion.

Statement from Autistici/Inventati The tech collective Autistici/Inventati was founded in 2001 as part of the G8 summit in Genoa and is known, among other things, for the WordPress blog platform noblogs.org, which also hosts the blog https://capulcu.noblogs.org.

In addition, the collective provides further communication infrastructure in the form of websites, email, mailing lists, chats, newsletters, etc. for individuals and emancipatory groups.

In an initial statement, Autistici/Inventati denied the allegations: We strongly reiterate our commitment to providing a platform with tools for digital self-defense that meets the need for free communication of activists as well as other individuals, groups and associations.

We won't give in.

We will continue to do what we have done all these years.

And we will do everything in our power to counter the false accusations of a politically desperate government.

Their only intention is to distract the attention of the people and the media from their own violence and warmongering.

Anti-fascism and anti-capitalism are not terrorism.

Protesting is not terrorism.

And everyone has the right to express their opinion and fight for humanity.

Fight against “the left” The ultra-right US government’s measure is part of the (cultural) fight against “the left”.

It follows on seamlessly from previous measures such as the classification of “Antifa Ost” as a terrorist organization in November 2025.

As a result of the sanctions at the time, the GLS Bank terminated the accounts of Rote Hilfe and ABC Dresden, among others.

Similar consequences can now also be expected for Autistici/Inventati in Italy.

There are also possible others such as the loss of domains or access to data centers.

It was only in July that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced further classifications of foreign groups as terrorists at the ministerial conference on the resurgence of political terrorism.

He also referred to the power outage in Berlin and announced that the German federal government would continue the conference.

The sanctioning of Autistici/Inventati that has now taken place is not only directed against the collective itself, but is also a piece of the puzzle in a larger attack on social movements, structures and individuals worldwide.

In addition to the attempt at social isolation and defamation of left-wing structures as “violent terrorists” by the ultra-right US government, we see another dimension: more and more communication by social movements has shifted to the platforms of large tech companies in recent years.

A presumed aim of the US government's measure is to further promote this development and destroy alternative communication platforms.

When social movements use the services of large (US) tech companies instead of self-operated alternatives such as linksunten.indymedia or noblogs.org, they become somewhat dependent on them.

The algorithms then make it easier for them to control their reach or censor them completely.

It also makes it easier for governments to monitor individuals, groups and structures.

We understand the measures as an attack on free (public) or encrypted communication of resistant groups and the people involved.

Defend structures!

Over ten years ago we wrote in the Disconnect! in an article that dealt, among other things, with the operation of alternative communication platforms by tech collectives such as Autistici/Inventati as part of the resistance against the technological attack, that the different levels of this resistance must complement each other in order to ultimately be successful: However, digital self-defense and data economy are not enough to escape the process of centralization, omnipresent access and complete controllability in the long term.

There is a need to reject the technological attack on society as a whole.

This is the only way to build self-determined communication in the future.

The aim is to establish forms of resistance as a broad social practice.

The faint hope of a “massification” of resistance to the technological attack has (so far) remained unfulfilled, with a few exceptions.

Nevertheless, we remain committed to this: Just as a purely technical response to the technological attack remains necessarily inadequate - namely when encryption and alternative platforms are banned by state regulation or undermined through back doors - the attack on tech collectives and our communication infrastructure in the form of sanctions and defamation also requires a political and social response: “No pasarán!” In the case of Red Aid, the GLS Bank (partially) backed away from the account terminations in view of the reactions from civil society.

With this in mind, let us support those affected, publicly reject the defamations and launch a counterattack.

Ultimately, our encryption, newspapers and digital communication platforms are only worth something if we defend them and use them in social struggles.