Referendum census website registered via Pirate Bay co-founder’s company

On Thursday, Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont said that he had “contingency plans” to make up for the fact that a major Civil Guard raid against key government offices has effectively curtailed the logistics of a vote that violates Spanish constitutional laws, and which the Constitutional Court has suspended.

If you’re running a site being shut down by authorities, contact me for anonymous hosting

Owner of Njalla service, Peter Sunde

As part of these plans, Puigdemont, of the separatist coalition Junts pel Si (Together for Yes), tweeted a link for a website containing the electoral roll and a list of voting stations for the referendum. The domain name website, onvotar.garantiespelreferendum.com (or, wheretovote.guaranteesforthereferendum.com), was registered through a company called Njalla, which is physically located on the island of Nevis, in the Caribbean.

Njalla belongs to Peter Sunde, a privacy activist and co-founder of The Pirate Bay, an online index of digital content facilitating peer-to-peer file sharing. Sunde offered his services on Monday via a tweet: “If you’re running a Catalan site being shut down by Spanish authorities, contact me for anonymous hosting and domains. We’ve got you covered,” the message read.

On Wednesday, after the Civil Guard raided the DotCat Registry Offices as part of a court-ordered investigation into illegal referendum activities, Sunde tweeted: “This is a international issue, not just a local one. This is not OK.”

Njalla is described as “a privacy-aware domain registration service that protects you from ferocious domain predators.”

The word “njalla” describes a tree hut used in Lapland and “refers to the classic Sámi way of keeping the non-wanted beasts out of the stuff you care about.”

English version by Susana Urra.