This doesn’t sound so great: “The State Department doesn’t accuse Autistici/Inventati of doing anything more than providing ‘untraceable’ email accounts. But that’s enough to outlaw it as a terrorist organization.”
Instead, the State Department announcement states that the group “builds and operates the digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other far-left militants across the world,” allowing these “militants” to “disseminate target information, tactical manuals and techniques, and communiqués about recent attacks” while staying “anonymous, untraceable, and beyond the reach of the law.”
In other words, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is attacking the group for running an online platform that the U.S. government can’t spy on and for facilitating communications the U.S. government doesn’t like. But precisely because Autistici/Inventati is based in another country—Italy—the U.S. government has basically unchecked power to impose counterterrorism sanctions on it.
Reason Magazine (“Free Minds and Free Markets”) is often on top of these things. Although I have left behind most of my libertarian views and impulses over the years, my esteem for this publication has remained very high. It’s honest, subtle, wide-reaching, and always well-written.
