On August 26, 2026, the U.S. administration (the State Department and the Treasury Department) designated the Italian hacker collective Autistici/Inventati as a terrorist organization and imposed sanctions on it. Autistici/Inventati provides free online communication services (blogs, email, etc.) to other left-wing activist groups (e.g., those associated with the Antifa movement).
The U.S. government’s extrajudicial measures require American companies and individuals to cease all economic ties with the collective - including customer relationships and donations - by September 25, 2026. Within a very short time, PayPal blocked the donation account (the WHS had already been affected by this itself), and the .org registrar (PIR) blocked the DNS entry. Tens of thousands of blogs and email accounts belonging to left-wing groups were temporarily difficult to access worldwide.
In a sense, Autistici/Inventati is collateral damage of the American “War on Antifa,” which is being waged by the U.S. government in the United States and, increasingly, in Europe as well. Since Autistici/Inventati is a key pillar of the Antifa movement, taking down just one provider isolates a great many Antifa groups and cuts them off from communication. The fact that the collective is based in a country whose right-wing government defines itself as “anti-anti-fascist” was a stroke of luck for the U.S., since no official protests are expected - quite the contrary.
Even though the U.S. government’s orders are binding only within U.S. jurisdiction, companies and banks in Europe are proactively complying with these orders so as not to jeopardize their U.S. business and interests (so-called “de-risking”). For example, Banca Etica (what an irony!) has frozen Autistici/Inventati’s account, thereby rendering the group financially incapacitated.
The Wau-Holland Foundation advocates for freedom of information and informational self-determination and considers services to be indispensable that prioritize user anonymity and unrestricted communication over the profits that can be derived from the unrestrained exploitation of user activity. For this reason, the foundation will work to explore technical, legal, and political solutions and alternatives.
What makes this case significant is the fact that digital communications infrastructure has never before been classified as “material support for terrorism”—and for good reason: it is no longer possible to draw a clear line between such infrastructure and recognized, legitimate communications service providers. If terrorists use smartphones to communicate via Deutsche Telekom’s infrastructure, doesn’t that also make Deutsche Telekom a supporter of terrorism?
Incidentally, one might ask why sanctions aren’t imposed on the Tor network - which is largely funded by the U.S. government - instead of the Italian Autistici/Inventati. The arguments would be the same: Every anonymous platform has its black sheep if you look closely enough - it just depends on your own definition of a “black sheep”.
