Spanish police block website of pro-independence civil society organization

Spanish police blocked the website of the pro-independence civil society organization Assemblea Nacional Catalana, (Catalan National Assembly, ANC), said the group on Monday night. Shortly after the original website was shut down, ANC launched it again on a different domain (assemblea.eu).

The ANC is one of the organizations behind the massive rallies in favor of independence that have taken place in Catalonia in the last six years, and is privately funded.

The organization criticized that they had not received any previous warning that the website would be shut down. “In Spain, the Guardia Civil can already shut down the website of a legal private organization without previous notification,” tweeted Adrià Alsina, ANC's communications director.

"We'll be back soon. Hello, dictatorship", ANC tweeted ironically, using a logo of a Warner Bros cartoon, in a joke aimed at Spanish police, which has a Tweety-themed vessel docked in Barcelona, full of agents to stop the referendum.