itch.io spent hours completely offline on Sunday night — and the indie game marketplace placed the blame on an automated takedown generated on behalf of Funko, maker of the Funko Pop collectable figurines.
“I kid you not, @itchio has been taken down by @OriginalFunko,” the site posted to X in the early hours of Monday morning. itch.io said Funko uses “some trash ‘AI Powered’ Brand Protection Software” that generated a “bogus Phishing report” about the itch.io site.
This report was sent to itch.io’s domain registrar iwantmyname, which went ahead and disabled the site. This action was also likely taken by an “automated system,” itch.io said.
itch.io claimed to have taken down the “disputed page” that triggered the phishing report immediately on receiving the takedown notice, but said no-one at iwantmyname appeared to have read the email confirming the page’s removal.
Contacted for comment by Polygon, an iwantmyname representative said, “The domain name was already reinstated earlier today after the registrant finally responded to our notice and took appropriate action to resolve the issue.” At the time iwantmyname’s reply was sent, itch.io appeared to have been back online for less than 40 minutes.
itch.io came back online between 5 and 6 a.m. EST on Monday morning, after at least three hours during which it was completely offline for most users, including both players and developers who use the open platform. Games and other products already bought from itch.io could be used without issue, but the storefront outage will have been a significant problem for creators who use it for distribution.
The software allegedly used by Funko that took the itch.io site down is made by a company called BrandShield. BrandShield describes itself as an “AI-powered online anti-counterfeiting solution” that monitors for “trademark infringements, phishing attempts, brand abuse, and counterfeit activity.”
Polygon has asked itch.io and Funko for comment.