EXCLUSIVE: State Dept reveals Portland Antifa connection to Hamas, Iran’s IRGC in sweeping terror action
The US State Department has designated Autistici/Inventati (A/I Collective), an Italy-based technology collective, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, accusing it of providing encrypted communications and hosting services to violent far-left groups, including Portland's Rose City Antifa, alongside Islamist organisations such as Hamas and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move targets the digital infrastructure enabling "the most active and violent Antifa cells" worldwide, marking a broadening of Washington's counter-terrorism focus beyond jihadist networks to far-left extremism. The designation blocks Americans and US financial institutions from dealing with the group and freezes any assets under US jurisdiction, with violators facing civil or criminal penalties.
According to a State Department memo, A/I Collective supplies encrypted email and chat, web hosting, secure video conferencing and anonymity tools exclusively to users who pass an ideological screening process, hosting roughly 16,000 mailboxes, 1,500 websites, 5,500 mailing lists and 10,000 blogs. The memo links the collective's services to Rose City Antifa and to a media outlet allegedly used to spread material for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, the IRGC and Hezbollah, and also names the militant group "Jane's Revenge," which threatened attacks on pro-life organisations after the leaked 2022 Supreme Court draft on Roe v Wade. Rubio said the action reflects a broader effort to use "all the tools and authorities" available to combat violent extremism and protect critical infrastructure and political opponents from attack.
In short
- US sanctions Italy-based tech collective A/I Collective as global terrorist entity
- Memo links group's tools to Portland's Antifa and Hamas, IRGC, Hezbollah
- Designation freezes assets, bars Americans from doing business with it
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The State Department acted appropriately in designating A/I Collective because the organisation deliberately screens users for ideological alignment and systematically provides encrypted communications infrastructure to both formally designated terrorist entities like Hamas and the IRGC and to violent extremist cells with documented histories of attacks. Treating organisations as liable for material support to terrorism—especially when they actively curate rather than neutrally host—falls squarely within existing counter-terrorism legal frameworks and addresses the infrastructure enabling distributed networks of violence across ideological boundaries.
The case against
This designation represents a dangerous expansion of terrorism law against political opponents and civil liberties infrastructure. Encryption, hosting, and anonymity services are essential dual-use technologies relied upon by journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens globally, and holding providers responsible for users' speech or activities threatens fundamental privacy and free expression rights. Grouping decentralised protest movements with formal terrorist organisations misapplies counter-terrorism law to domestic political dissidents, whilst vague standards like 'ideological screening' could justify targeting any platform with any editorial standards—setting precedent for government suppression of opposition.
Explained simply
Antifa is a loose label for anti-fascist groups, rather than a single organisation with a central leadership. Rose City Antifa is a group based in Portland, Oregon. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are Palestinian organisations; Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a branch of Iran’s armed forces.
Autistici/Inventati is an Italy-based collective that provides online services such as email, chat and web hosting. The US State Department says some groups it considers violent have used those services. The collective’s work and the alleged links are central to the government’s stated grounds for its action.
A US terrorist designation can restrict Americans and US financial institutions from doing business with a named group and can freeze its assets under US jurisdiction. The case matters because it applies counter-terrorism measures to a technology provider accused of supporting far-left groups, as well as organisations associated with Islamist militancy.
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