U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

exiguus 542 points 532 comments August 28, 2026
www.inventati.org · View on Hacker News

Earlier: US Government designates host of noblogs.org a "global terrorist" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49464391 - (131 comments) US sanctions Italian hosting provider Autistici Inventati - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49451343 - (219 comments)

Discussion Highlights (20 comments)

Avicebron

I clicked around a bit, read the manifesto, I still have no idea what these people do. I guess they claim to have been around for a while, but a bunch of the links don't work and the manifesto has definitely been updated to reflect 2026 opinions. What is this?

exiguus

There is also an article on we will free us [1] if you want to dive deeper into that rabbit hole. [1] https://www.wewillfreeus.org/the-server-called-paranoia-defe...

collabs

For those like me who don't have context, here is the New York Times article on this recent news / event https://archive.fo/e8Gss > The State Department on Wednesday designated three groups based in Europe, including two that advocate Palestinian rights, as transnational terrorist organizations. > The move is part of the Trump administration’s fight against what it calls a “resurgence of far-left political terrorism” worldwide, a focus that many security experts say is disproportionate. > In a statement, the department said that it would impose sanctions on Palestine Action, which is based in Britain and organizes acts of support for Palestinians and opposition to Israeli policies; Masar Badil, another pro-Palestinian group with branches in Western Europe and Canada; and Autistici/Inventati, known as A/I Collective, which is based in Italy and offers free digital tools to leftist activists around the world. a/I collective in the OP is the third on this list. > based in Italy and offers free digital tools to leftist activists around the world

aeon_ai

https://cavallette.noblogs.org/2026/08/10076 - Direct link to the sanctions declaration. The actual Treasury Announce here - https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0616/ "The Autistici Inventati is an Italy-based far-left organization that provides a range of technological tools and services to violent left-wing extremist groups, including website hosting on foreign servers, encrypted email accounts, chat and video conferencing, and digital architecture associated with its “Noblogs” platform. Autistici Inventati identifies itself as an “anti-fascist” and “anti-militarist” organization opposed to capitalism and exclusively provides its services to vetted individuals, collectives, and groups it perceives to be aligned with its ideology, including to sanctioned terrorist organizations such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been designated by the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union for its use of terrorist tactics leading to thousands of deaths in Türkiye, Iraq, and Syria since its establishment in 1984. Autistici Inventati is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, an act of terrorism."

grim_io

I guess bombing them got some pushback. Everyone's a terrorist nowadays.

rvz

> Our financial strategy relies exclusively on voluntary donations. That is not a sustainable strategy in the long term. Sure after this news they will get lots of donations, but long term it is not something that is realistic. Since they are now "sanctioned" by the US you cannot legally donate to them even if you wanted to...*[0] [0] *Unless you now know why this collective needs crypto more than ever.

tokai

Maybe they should try couping the Italian government, rename themselves to Ragazzi Orgogliosi. That should help.

ChrisArchitect

Actual link: https://cavallette.noblogs.org/2026/08/10076 Title: A Statement by A/I Collective About US Sanctions

epolanski

What does it entail, in practice? They are sanctioned, okay, and? What happens practically.

ChrisArchitect

Related discussions: US sanctions Italian hosting provider Autistici Inventati https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49451343 US Government designates host of noblogs.org a "global terrorist" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49464391

iamnothere

Everyone’s missing the big picture here which is that this targeting of infrastructure providers as “terrorists” is unprecedented and concerning: https://decode39.com/16319/autistici-inventati-case-sets-a-n... If a radical group sets up shop on I2P, are I2P users and devs now terrorists? This is a problem. What about Monero users/devs? Veilid? Tox? Signal?

mindslight

Keep in mind we're talking about communications services here, and one focusing on political speech at that. " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. " In general I think the free lunch of centrally hosted services and persistent doxxable identities is nearing a close. It was inevitable that governments would meddle more, and more, and more - implicitly treating communications are something other than speech due to how encompassing the digital world has become - and now here we are.

subvol

seems like PIR (the .org registry) now also suspended their main domain: https://www.whois.com/whois/autistici.org (it is on serverHold)

hamburga

As far as I can tell, there were no credible criminal charges against this group, except that they are effective organizers on the opposite side of political spectrum. In the White House’s deranged logic, this qualifies them to be officially designated as domestic terrorists [1]. Can we all agree that this is an assault on the First Amendment? [1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/desi...

JohnTHaller

Given administration's obsession with Antifa being in the room with them at all times, it's impossible to take anything they say in relation to this as even close to factual.

VCFundedGenYer

I'm bothered by their incorrect use of the root word 'autistic' - That's just a poor choice on their part. Very bad look.

dudefeliciano

The question stays the same: “are you antifa or are you fa?”

Varelion

Remember, Trump and his cultists are symptoms -- not the cause. I.E. Cuba's embargo was in place long before the orange buffoon, and that is the same force at play here. Fear that the people will get a taste of a fairer, more just alternative. > “are you antifa or are you fa?”

cvalkz

Could the persons that mention the PKK all over this thread kindly find links now that noblogs.org is partly dysfunctional and autistici.org is down? Google Search yields a very small amount of third party support for the PKK, all unreachable now. I cannot find any evidence at all and neither can LLMs that this organization has ever directly supported the PKK or hosted a PKK website.

mdp2021

> Only months after Paranoia [their first server] went online, the G8 came to Genoa. Many A/I participants were also involved with Indymedia Italy. They helped construct the movement’s media center, laying cables, configuring servers and building workstations through which protesters could report what was happening across the city. What followed was historic: enormous demonstrations, the police killing of Carlo Giuliani, indiscriminate beatings in the streets, torture and abuse inside the Bolzaneto barracks and the nighttime raid on the Diaz school. Official narratives competed with photographs, recordings and firsthand testimony transmitted through independent infrastructure. Genoa became one of the earliest major demonstrations to be documented from nearly every direction by its participants rather than exclusively through institutional media. https://cavallette.noblogs.org/2026/08/10083/2 Very curious. My latest submission is the video of Larry Ellison with the "The police will be on their best behavior[,] Citizens will be on their best behavior because we're constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on". (It was triggered by a piece on TheOnion.) Turns out, other people had been recording events, so that a covering narrative may not prevail over the truth.

Semantic search powered by Rivestack pgvector
4,827 stories · 43,558 chunks indexed