USA sanctions hit at $$$, domains & bandwidth, etc. Antifa was surprised?
https://www.conservativenewsdaily.net/breaking-news/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignantifa-networks-panic-after-trump-administration-just-sanctioned-their-servers/
A/I Collective provides sophisticated tech tools for a variety of far-left extremist actors, including website hosting, a blogging suite known as “No.Blogs,” mail services, and similar tech services. Utilizing these anonymous tools, anarchist and autonomous groups issue communiques for designated terrorist groups, issue calls to commit criminal acts, and take credit for attacks...not just opinions, but “target information, tactical manuals and techniques”
the A/I Collective has long known that it was a legitimate target of law enforcement.....they [did] Plan R*, intended as a technical solution of decentralized servers meant to prevent physical intrusion...[&] the “Orange Book,” a manual to allow individuals or groups to replicate their specific network methods.
This is in keeping with Anarchist/Autonomous methodology, which seeks to widely and deniably distribute responsibility...the more people participating and utilizing the techniques, the harder it is for law enforcement to address. While one site or group can be taken down, the material is quickly redistributed to other servers and other groups.
[but] the [USA] sanctions schema targets not the digital infrastructure but “The world around it” preventing the collective from banking, accepting donations, purchasing domains, or acquiring bandwidth. It...warn[s] U.S.-based supporters against attempting to circumvent sanctions without qualified legal advice, providing a list of “dos and don’ts” including “Do Not: Improvise donations, reroute funds, disguise payments, access private data, promise direct services, guess at sanctions law.”
Indeed, U.S. persons are prohibited from either receiving or providing any services to or from A/I Collective at all.
There seems to be some surprise within the Antifa/Anarchist networks that the Trump administration has been successful in landing a genuine blow. After decades of hiding behind the legal fiction that “Antifa doesn’t exist,” the idea that the government might successfully target not just a handful of individual anarchists but elements of the network apparatus upon which they rely seems to have come as something of a shock.
“WTF” commented one account, apparently dumbfounded.
The Trump administration should expect, however, that these threat actors will not remain on their back heels for long. They should be preparing for the inevitable diaspora as groups flee A/I Collective for other similar entities, of which there is no shortage.
One possible outcome is that bad actors attempt to flee to U.S.-based tech collectives, such as RiseUp, a Seattle-based tech collective closely aligned with A/I Collective, and which provides many of the same services to Antifa groups worldwide.
