On December 9, the website itch.io, a digital store specializing in indie games, stopped working. According to the platform's administration, the domain registrar closed access to it after receiving a complaint from toy manufacturer Funko.
Itch.io claimed that Funko used "some trashy AI-powered brand protection software" called BrandShield. Recently, this program allegedly sent the registrar a "bogus report" stating that phishing was found on one of itch.io's pages.
According to itch.io, the store administration removed the disputed page shortly after the phishing notification to avoid issues and informed the registrar, but this didn't prevent the site from being blocked. In their view, the registrar might not have read itch.io's report and operated automatically.
Itch.io plans to move the store to a new domain if access to the site is not restored in the coming hours.
Funko representatives did not comment on the situation.
Update: The itch.io site is accessible again.