Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati shuts down after US terrorist designation
The Italian technology collective Autistici/Inventati (A/I) announced Sunday it will shut down operations after the U.S. government declared it a terrorist organization and imposed sanctions.
The volunteer-run collective was founded in 2001 on the principles of an open internet free from corporate and government control and was explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-fascist. Its free privacy-focused services had grown to host about 16,000 email addresses, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists and a network of some 10,000 blogs, all while pledging to protect its users' data.
On August 26, the State Department labeled A/I an “extremist group” operating infrastructure for “far-left militants across the world” and announced that anyone engaging with the group financially risked exposure to sanctions.
