A/I shuts down: Autistici/Inventati ends all services after 25 years

Autistici/Inventati, the Italian collective known as A/I that has run free, privacy-oriented digital services for a quarter of a century, announced that it is shutting down and will discontinue all of the services it provides. The decision was published as an open statement titled simply "A/I shuts down - Stay human".

Twenty-five years, then a designation

The collective writes that the announcement follows "the day we discovered we had been designated a global terrorist organization". Every day the infrastructure stayed online after 26 August 2026 is described in the statement as a victory, but the group says it is now forced to stop.

A/I has long maintained what it calls a free, privacy-friendly, autonomous and politically committed infrastructure: mailboxes, blogs and websites offered without any commercial logic. "Stay human" is not an empty phrase to us, the collective stresses, adding that the principle means protecting users, the people who build the human networks the service depends on, and the communities that sent messages of support.

Why the collective says it cannot continue

The statement argues that continuing to operate would expose users and their loved ones to legal and financial consequences, leaving them "at the mercy of autocrats, fascists and agencies that take extra-legal courses of action". In a climate where, in their words, allegations are disconnected from reality, the collective says it can no longer uphold its original mission of offering secure, non-commercial digital tools.

The group refuses heroic gestures outright: "None of us holds heroic gestures and martyrs in high esteem, therefore we will demand no sacrifices."

What users should expect

Instructions for backing up the content of blogs, mailboxes and websites will be sent soon, together with further technical recommendations. The collective warns that, just as the autistici.org domain was made unreachable without prior notice, similar problems may appear in the coming days that it cannot predict.

The closing message is short: turn off your PCs, get out of your homes, struggle, hug each other and keep on smiling. "We are stopping, but the Resistance and ideas do not stop. Stay human."