Washington's decision on 26 August to classify the Italian non-profit Autistici/Inventati (A/I) as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" for allegedly supporting "violent far-left militants" represents far more than a single enforcement action. The designation strikes at the heart of independent internet infrastructure, the rights of grassroots collectives, encrypted communications, and the democratic legitimacy of the European Union itself, according to digital rights advocates.

What happened?

The US government's August 26 designation of Autistici/Inventati as a terrorist entity has triggered immediate consequences. The Public Interest Registry, a US-based operator, disabled A/I's "autistici.org" domain, rendering the organisation's website inaccessible. PayPal has frozen the collective's account, while Banca Etica, Italy's ethical bank, faces pressure to sever ties due to fears of secondary sanctions despite its stated commitment to human rights. These moves expose how US financial and technical controls ripple across borders, forcing non-American institutions to comply even absent direct legal obligation.

The fallout extends beyond A/I itself. Non-US banks and financial institutions are likely to terminate relationships with the organisation out of concern about potential US secondary sanctions or regulatory exposure. This could effectively isolate A/I from essential services and severely hamper its operational capacity.

Who is Autistici/Inventati?

Operating from Italy since 2001, A/I is a volunteer-driven collective rooted in anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-militarist principles, opposing both capitalism and authoritarianism. The organisation hosts only projects aligned with these values. Its infrastructure—decentralised, non-commercial, and designed to resist surveillance—provides email, mailing lists, blog hosting, and anonymity-focused services to associations, community groups, and individuals across Europe and beyond.

The platform's scale underscores its importance to civil society. A/I currently hosts 16,000 mailboxes, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists, and 10,000 blogs. Many users chose A/I precisely because their work was deemed unsafe or unwelcome on commercial platforms—journalists, researchers, trade unionists, and campaigners whose activities require genuine security from state and corporate surveillance.

The cascading threat

The US action jeopardises fundamental freedoms across Europe. A/I's users—thousands of organisations and collectives—will not face direct sanctions, but association with the designated entity will reshape how banks scrutinise their payments, how researchers and journalists assess their credibility, and how border authorities treat them. This creates a broad chilling effect delivered through a single designation. If independent, secure providers like A/I continue to face attack, organisations may be forced onto commercial Big Tech platforms, exposing them to intensified surveillance and censorship.

The designation also undermines European sovereignty and rule of law. An entity established under Italian jurisdiction and subject to European courts has been sanctioned by unilateral executive decision from a third country. This precedent threatens non-commercial hosts, registrars, and privacy-preserving services across the continent. Moreover, the US action directly contradicts the EU's Digital Services Act, which treats general-purpose communication tools differently from material support for terrorism.

Calls to action

  • The United States government should reverse the designation and address any content concerns through established law enforcement frameworks respecting rule of law, due process and proportionality
  • The EU must defend its civil society by establishing a standing mechanism to protect organisations on its territory from third-country designations lacking judicial process. Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96 (the Blocking Statute) provides a foundation that should extend to non-profit entities and intermediaries
  • Italy's government should publicly defend an organisation established on its soil against extraterritorial measures imposed without judicial process
  • Financial institutions, internet registrars and infrastructure providers in the EU should refuse to comply with third-country designations that carry no force in European law
  • Digital rights, social justice and civil society organisations should stand in full solidarity with Autistici/Inventati and recognise the critical role secure, decentralised infrastructure plays in collective struggles for justice

A/I has weathered state repression before, adapting through infrastructure decentralisation, encryption deployment, and data minimisation to protect users. Yet the current attack's magnitude is unprecedented. The organisation's survival depends on collective solidarity and action from European governments and EU institutions.

Editor's note: On 6 September 2026, Autistici/Inventati announced it would shut down and discontinue services as a result of the US designation.

Signatories

  • European Digital Rights (EDRi)
  • Osservatorio Nessuno OdV (Italy)
  • IT-Pol (Denmark)
  • Danes je nov dan (Slovenia)
  • Hermes Center (Italy)
  • Alternatif Bilisim (Turkey)
  • Bits of Freedom (Netherlands)
  • NoLog.cz collective (Czechia)
  • IuRe / Iuridicum Remedium (Czechia)
  • Asociația pentru Tehnologie și Internet (ApTI) (Romania)
  • info.nodes (Italy)
  • epicenter.works (Austria)
  • Electronic Frontier Norway (EFN)
  • Homo Digitalis (Greece)
  • Privacy Network (Italy)
  • petites singularites (Belgium)
  • Politiscope (Croatia)
  • Chaos Computer Club (Germany)
  • Digitalcourage (Germany)
  • La Quadrature du Net (France)
  • Waag Futurelab (Netherlands)
  • DFRI (Sweden)
  • D3 – Defesa dos Direitos Digitais (Portugal)
  • Open Rights Group (UK)
  • Defend Democracy (Netherlands)
  • Digitale Gesellschaft (Germany)
  • People vs Big Tech (UK/EU)
  • Robur cooperative (Germany/international)
  • Kamratdataföreningen Konstellationen (Sweden)
  • Deutsche Vereinigung für Datenschutz e.V. (DVD) (Germany)
  • Vrijschrift.org (Netherlands)
  • critical infrastructure lab – University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University (Netherlands)
  • OBC Transeuropa
  • Disruption Network Lab (Germany)
  • Pangea (Spain)
  • Tachanka.org (International)

Source: EDRi (European Digital Rights)