Using the petition website originally set up by the Obama administration, the petition calls for labeling Antifa terrorists due to the group's "violent actions in multiple cities and their influence in the killings of multiple police officers throughout the United States." It also compares Antifa to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The petition was launched Thursday amid threats by Antifa against speakers and attendees of the free speech rally in Boston, Massachusetts, which was scheduled for Saturday. The rally's libertarian organizers had been denounced as white supremacists and neo-Nazis - a charge they have emphatically denied.

In the end, Boston police kept some 40,000 protesters away from the small gathering of free speech activists. Though the majority of demonstrators were peaceful, at one point the police had to plead that individuals stop "throwing urine, bottles and other harmful projectiles" at their officers.