Pioneer of activist hosting Autistici/Inventati shuts down after US terrorist designation

The Italian hacktivist collective Autistici/Inventati (A/I) announced on September 6 its dissolution and the imminent closure of all of its services, starting with the autistici.org email service and the noblogs.org blogging platform. The decision comes just eleven days after the Trump administration designated the collective as a global terrorist organization on August 26, a label the group rejects outright, declaring on its website that it is “not a terrorist organization” and describing autistici.org as “an infrastructure of dissent”. Digital rights groups and movements across Europe are sounding the alarm over what they call an unprecedented attack on an alternative hosting service.

In its farewell statement, titled “A/I shuts down – Stay human”, the collective explains that it can no longer guarantee the safety of its members or the users of its services: “The possibility that our work may cause legal and financial consequences to those who are close to us — or even only have something to do with us — leaves us no choice”, it writes, adding that “every day we stayed online after August 26, 2026, has been a victory, but now we are forced to stop.” The collective, which recently marked 25 years of activity, had already seen its autistici.org domain rendered unreachable without prior notice, while noblogs.org, known for hosting blogs of Antifa movements sometimes versed in civil disobedience, suffered cyberattacks in late August that defaced its homepage for several hours.

True to its ethos, A/I refused any heroics and demanded no sacrifices, judging that continuing to offer its secure, non-commercial tools would now expose its communities to increasingly disproportionate repression in “a world where allegations are disconnected from reality”. The collective has promised to send users instructions on how to back up their blogs, mailboxes and websites, while warning that further unpredictable disruptions may occur in the coming days. Its closing message calls on supporters to carry the struggle offline: “Turn off your PCs, get out of your homes, struggle, hug each other and keep on smiling. We are stopping, but the Resistance and ideas do not stop. Stay human.”