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Open Letter: Communications Infrastructure Is Not Terrorism

Sabot Media

Sabot Media

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Open Letter: Communications Infrastructure Is Not Terrorism


Defend Autistici/Inventati and the right to build resistant communication


*Letter for individuals to send to their reps, senators, and the like is at the end of this article*

On August 26, 2026, the United States designated the Italian volunteer technology collective Autistici/Inventati as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and placed it on the Specially Designated Nationals list under Executive Order 13224. A temporary authorization covering certain wind-down transactions ends at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on September 25.

Autistici/Inventati has provided noncommercial email, websites, mailing lists, Noblogs and other communications services since 2001. It emerged from Italian hacklabs, autonomous media and social movements. Its infrastructure was built in response to censorship, covert surveillance and server seizures. It minimizes identifying data, uses distributed systems and treats privacy as a condition of political participation rather than a product.

The United States' public announcements point to material and organizations that allegedly used A/I infrastructure. They do not publicly show that A/I planned the cited actions, selected targets, directed users or authored hosted material. The designation therefore raises a question extending far beyond one collective: can maintaining privacy-preserving communications infrastructure for disfavored movements itself be treated as terrorism?

That theory threatens independent hosts, encrypted communications services, radical libraries, movement archives, publishers and small volunteer projects everywhere. It invites banks, registrars, hosting companies and technology providers to sever relationships first and ask legal questions later. It turns data minimization into suspicion, privacy into concealment and infrastructure into guilt by association.

Large commercial platforms are ordinarily distinguished from the speech and conduct of their users through intermediary-liability principles, including Section 230 in the United States. Those protections are not absolute and do not override sanctions law. That is precisely why this designation is so consequential: executive sanctions power can impose economic isolation without resolving the ordinary question of whether a provider is legally responsible for third-party material in court.

Autistici/Inventati is not politically neutral, and neither are many of the publications, libraries, unions and civil-liberties organizations that may sign this letter. Political affinity, however, is not operational control. Providing an email account, publishing platform or server is not the same act as planning everything a user may later say or do.

We therefore call for:

The immediate revocation or prompt, transparent review of the designation, with publication of the factual and legal basis sufficient for meaningful public scrutiny and challenge.

A clear distinction between providing communications infrastructure and directing the conduct of its users. Privacy, encryption, pseudonymity and refusal to retain unnecessary identifying data must not be treated as evidence of terrorism.

Protection for independent reporting, research, archiving and public advocacy. Journalists, libraries, researchers and community archivists must be able to document this history without being treated as extensions of a designated entity.

Resistance to institutional over-compliance. Banks, registrars, hosts, certificate providers and technology companies should disclose relevant restrictions, provide notice where lawful and avoid suppressing material or relationships beyond what the law actually requires.

A public response from digital-rights, free-expression and civil-liberties institutions. The targeting of autonomous infrastructure cannot be allowed to become a precedent through silence.

We do not ask every signer to endorse every A/I user, publication or political position. We ask signers to defend a foundational distinction: communications infrastructure is not identical to the speech or conduct transmitted through it.

The purpose of economic designation is isolation. Our answer is independent, informed and disciplined solidarity: preserve the public record, examine the government's claims, resist over-compliance and defend the ability of movements to communicate without surrendering themselves to corporate or state surveillance.

Signed,

Sabot Media  
We Will Free Us  
Grounded Futures Podcast
The Final Straw Radio
Dirty Hands Collective - CO
BASH - Boise Autonomous Solidarity Hub - ID
Chehalis River Mutual Aid Network - WA
The Blackflower Collective - WA
Eric Gallager, Concord, New Hampshire, USA

[FOUNDING ORGANIZATIONAL SIGNATORIES]

Sign on
Organizations may request to Sign the Open Letter

The public signatory list will display the organization name, website, country and optional public statement. Contact details used for verification will not be published.

Independence disclosure
This letter is an independent initiative of Sabot Media and We Will Free Us. The publishers and signatories do not represent, speak for, coordinate with or claim affiliation with Autistici/Inventati.

Letter for individuals to send to government officials:

Individual Letter Template

Personalize this before sending it. Add why independent communications infrastructure matters to you and address it to a specific official, institution, provider or civil-liberties organization.


Suggested subject lines
Respond publicly to the designation of Autistici/Inventati
Communications infrastructure is not terrorism
Protect independent hosting, publishing and movement archives

Letter
Dear [NAME OR INSTITUTION],
I am writing about the United States' August 26 designation of the Italian communications collective Autistici/Inventati and the wider consequences for independent digital infrastructure.
A/I has provided noncommercial email, websites, mailing lists, Noblogs and other communications services since 2001. The government's public announcements focus on material and organizations that allegedly used A/I infrastructure, but do not publicly show that the collective planned the cited actions, selected targets, directed users or authored hosted material.
This creates a dangerous precedent. If infrastructure providers can be economically isolated because controversial movements use their services, the consequences may extend to independent hosts, encrypted communications projects, libraries, archives, publishers and privacy-preserving services everywhere.
I ask you to:
Examine and respond publicly to the designation.
Defend the distinction between providing infrastructure and directing user conduct.
Oppose institutional over-compliance that suppresses lawful reporting, research, archiving or communication.
Support transparent review and meaningful public scrutiny of the government's factual and legal basis.
[ADD TWO OR THREE PERSONAL SENTENCES HERE.]
Background and primary sources are available at: https://sabot.media/post/the-server-called-paranoia

Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[CITY / REGION, OPTIONAL]

Who should receive this letter?

Sending one letter is useful. Sending personalized copies to several officials is better. Change the greeting for each recipient, add one or two sentences explaining why this matters to you, and submit every copy separately.

If you live in the United States

Send the letter to these four recipients first:

  1. Your U.S. representative: Find their official website and contact form at house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.
  2. Both of your U.S. senators: Select your state at senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm. Most Senate offices use individual contact forms instead of public email addresses.
  3. The U.S. Treasury Department and Office of Foreign Assets Control: OFAC administers the sanctions designation. Use the official contact routes at ofac.treasury.gov/contact-ofac and home.treasury.gov/utility/contact. Ask that your message be recorded as opposition to the designation of Autistici/Inventati and forwarded to the officials responsible for Executive Order 13224 designations.

You can also send copies to:

If an online form limits the message length, remove the background paragraphs but preserve your demand: disclose the evidence, reverse the designation, and protect communications providers from being treated as responsible for everything their users publish.

You can also call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative or either senator. Tell the staff member that you are a constituent and want the office to oppose the designation of Autistici/Inventati.

If you live in the European Union

Send the letter to:

  1. Your national representatives and foreign ministry.
  2. Your Members of the European Parliament: Find their profiles and direct contact information at europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/home.
  3. The European Parliament: Submit a public inquiry at europarl.europa.eu/forms/en/ask-ep.
  4. The European Commission sanctions office: relex-sanctions@ec.europa.eu

Ask European officials what they will do to protect European organizations, banks, hosts, registrars and users from extraterritorial U.S. pressure and sanctions over-compliance.

Because A/I is based in Italy, you can also send the letter to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Ask the Italian government to state publicly whether it will defend an Italian volunteer communications project from extraterritorial economic isolation.

If you live elsewhere

Send the letter to:

  • Your national representative or parliament member.
  • Your country’s foreign ministry.
  • Your country’s embassy in Washington, D.C.
  • The Italian embassy or consulate serving your country.
  • Any national authority responsible for sanctions, banking or digital rights.

Ask whether your government will allow domestic banks and technology providers to cut off a lawful European communications collective solely because of a unilateral U.S. designation.

Make your letter count

Use your own name and location. Add a sentence explaining whether you are a writer, publisher, journalist, technologist, librarian, researcher, organizer or ordinary internet user concerned about this precedent. Ask for a written response and save whatever you receive.

Do not send one mass email with every recipient exposed in the address field. Send individual copies, use the official contact form when required, and keep a record of whom you contacted.

This letter campaign is an independent solidarity effort. Sabot Media and We Will Free Us are not affiliated with and do not represent Autistici/Inventati.

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