Italian Extremist Group Provided Encrypted Tech Services for U.S. Antifa Cells, State Department Says
An Italian extremist group has quietly laid the groundwork for far-left groups in the U.S. and beyond to organize anonymously and execute violent attacks using its covert digital infrastructure, the U.S. State Department alleges.
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Hackers and tech developers at Autistici/Inventati (A/I Collective) provide “encrypted chats and email, web hosting, secure video conferencing and streaming, anonymity shields,” to various far-left extremist groups, including anarchist and Marxist organizations, the State Department said in a statement this week announcing the Trump administration’s decision to classify the group as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described A/I Collective as “a major far-left tech collective whose services are used by the most active and violent Antifa cells in the United States and across the world.”
The State Department determined Oregon-based Rose City Antifa, described as “one of America’s most violent communist groups,” used an A/I Collective site to dox Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Notably, the site was used to plan an attack on Customs and Border Patrol helicopters that involved people pointing lasers at the pilots.
“All you need is a laser. Leave home – they can see where the laser is coming from. Go to a park, a field, or some other public place, and once the clock strikes 9 unleash your beam at the cop copter. Mask up. Coordinate with friends to throw a laser party!” a flyer read.
“Let’s take back the night together!” it continued. “It won’t take many of us to ground the helicopters!”
A separate anarchist cell that executed a violent campaign against the construction of a law enforcement training center in Atlanta, Ga., also relied on A/I Collective tools and services to “claim responsibility for violent attacks on law enforcement officers, disseminate doxing lists and illegally obtained private information, threaten government officials and business owners, and circulate instructions for making improvised explosive and incendiary devices to be used against government buildings and local businesses,” the State Department said.
Jane’s Revenge, a pro-abortion group that has infamously targeted pregnancy resource centers with violent firebomb attacks, has also relied on A/I Collective’s infrastructure to publish official communiqués and claims of responsibility for violent and criminal acts.
According to the State Department, A/I Collective exclusively offers its tools to radical far-left actors.
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A/I Collective “currently claims to host roughly 16,000 mailboxes, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists, and 10,000 ‘blogs’ on its custom-built platform, which militants frequently use to disseminate target information, tactical manuals and techniques, and communiqués about recent attacks,” the press release reads.
“These tools are specifically designed to support the operations of far-left terrorist networks, built to enable them to organize, recruit, communicate, disseminate propaganda, share target information and tactics, and carry out violent attacks – all while remaining anonymous, untraceable, and beyond the reach of the law,” the memo reads.
Outside the U.S., A/I Collective’s services were used to carry out attacks on critical infrastructure throughout Europe.
“The anarchist cells responsible for sabotaging rail systems across France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands in 2026, relied on A/I Collective tools and services to claim responsibility for the attacks, publish official communiqués, and disseminate manuals for constructing improvised incendiary devices to target railways and other critical infrastructure,” according to the State Department.
Further, A/I Collective has worked with U.S-designated terrorist organizations such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), among others.
Under its new Specially Designated Global Terrorist status, A/I Collective’s U.S. assets are frozen and Americans are generally barred from doing business with the group. Those who engage with the entity could face sanctions or civil and criminal penalties.
“There will be no refuge for violent extremists who wage war on our civilization and plot to undermine law and order, destroy critical infrastructure, assault political opponents, or conspire to conceal their crimes from authorities,” Rubio said.
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