On August 26, 2026, the Trump administration announced sanctions against the Autistici/Inventati (A/I) technology collective—a small, volunteer-run collective in Italy that offers services such as email, blog and website hosting, chat, and video conferencing free of charge to activists. This is a consequence of the designation of “antifa” as a terrorist group, a decision that could have even more dire consequences for all of us.
We are heavily dependent on platforms and infrastructure maintained by our declared enemies. From corporate social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and X, to messaging apps like WhatsApp. This not only leaves us vulnerable to having our data and metadata used against us—whether by capitalists or the state’s apparatus of repression, since both collaborate against movements for freedom and social justice—but we could also have all our means of communication taken away from us overnight. This can take the form of account suspensions on social media platforms, as has already happened to many anarchist, anti-fascist, and pro-Palestine liberation profiles on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, etc. But it can also happen to specific services that rely on commercial hosting, as is currently the case with NoBlogs—A/I’s blogging service, which hosts thousands of websites for collectives around the world. As of this writing, on the morning of August 28, 2026, NoBlogs is offline.
We need to strengthen and build alternatives to corporate digital services. We need to build resilience by multiplying and spreading these services across the globe, and increasingly seek out decentralized tools. We also need to find forms of communication that do not depend on communication infrastructures controlled by the state and corporations, and build new, more resilient, and secure forms of communication. One example of this is solutions like Meshstatic, which use radio waves via inexpensive antennas to transmit encrypted messages. This will not only be useful against state repression but also for maintaining our organization when telephone networks collapse—such as during outages caused by extreme weather events resulting from human-induced global warming.
We will be doomed if we sit idly by, waiting for a solution to fall from the sky—delivered perfect, ready, and complete. Alternatives have always existed, but if we seek self-determination, we must actively pursue them and work together so that they grow, improve, and spread. The world we dream of must be built.
Our deepest solidarity goes out to those who have been building this world for decades. Our full solidarity and support go to the Autistici/Inventati collective. We extend our utmost respect and admiration to the other collectives around the world that have been fighting and building alternatives to corporate services and social media—or rather, social domination networks.
