Indie game marketplace Itch.io goes down as it claims Funko Pop company used "AI-powered" brand protection to create "some bogus phishing report"

Update, December 10, 2024:

Itch.io is back online after being down for several hours yesterday amid claims that its domain had been disabled after a "phishing report" was filed against it by Funko, using "AI-powered" brand protection from BrandShield.

Overnight, the owner of the Itch.io Twitter account alleged that Funko attempted to contact their mom over the matter. "This is not a joke, Funko just called my mom," they claim, sharing a message screenshot which says: "Got a strange call about accusatory screenshots on your social media account. Call me."

Funko hasn't commented on this specifically, but in a statement posted to social media, it acknowledges the wider situation, saying that "we hold a deep respect and appreciation for indie games, indie gamers, and indie developers." It claims that "one of our brand protection partners identified a page on [Itch.io] imitating the Funko Fusion development website," which led to a takedown request being issued for the specific page, but not the entire platform – "we're happy the site was back up by this morning," it adds. 

"We have reached out to Itch.io to engage with them on this issue and we deeply appreciate the understanding of the gaming community as the details are determined. Thank you for sharing in our passion for creativity," it concludes. 

Furthermore, in a statement sent to GamesRadar+, brand protection company BrandShield reiterates that a takedown was requested for a specific URL rather than the whole website. "BrandShield serves as a trusted partner to many global brands. Our AI-driven platform detects potential threats and provides analysis; then our team of Cybersecurity Threat hunters and IP lawyers decide on what actions should be taken," it explains. "In this case, an abuse was identified from the Itch.io subdomain. We identified and reported the infringement, and requested a takedown of the URL in question – not of the entire Itch.io domain.

"The temporary takedown of the website was a decision made by the service providers, not BrandShield," it continues. "BrandShield remains committed to supporting our clients by identifying potential digital threats and infringements and we encourage platforms to implement stronger self-regulation systems that prevent such issues from occurring."

Original story, December 9, 2024:

Indie game distribution site Itch.io has been offline today, and it has a truly bizarre reason as to why.

Itch.io might not be as huge a platform as Steam, but it's a major cornerstone of the indie gaming community, as it gives devs a place to distribute and sell their games, host game jams, and give players a chance to find new gems and play some of the best indie games. Today, though, users might have had some trouble accessing it at all, and Itch.io alleges that it's the result of collectible manufacturing company Funko (of Funko Pop fame) and a "bogus phishing report."

"I kid you not, Itch.io has been taken down by [Funko] because they use some trash 'AI-Powered' Brand Protection Software called BrandShield that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar, iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain," a post from Itch.io's Twitter account claims. "I hope you are all having a nice Sunday evening."

Continuing, Itch.io alleges that it immediately took action against the "disputed page" by taking it down "as soon as we got the notice because it's not worth fighting stuff like that. Regardless, our registrar's automated system likely kicked to disable the domain since no one read our confirmation of removal."

But what happens now? Around an hour ago, the site followed up on the situation to say it's "probably going to wait this one out," noting: "We considered putting up a new domain but there are implications with third-party services that make it not a trivial swap."

Even so, it added that if the downtime ends up lasting more than eight hours, "we'll likely prioritize deploying a new domain." Right now, the site appears to be live again, although this hasn't yet been acknowledged on its official social media pages, so it's not clear if the situation is fully resolved yet. 

Be sure to check out our roundup of upcoming indie games to see what new gems are on the horizon.