Itch.io, the beloved indie game distribution site-slash-platform, found itself unexpectedly taken down thanks to an overzealous artificial intelligence brand protection tool used by FunkoPop. The drama unfolded on X, where the official Itch.io account reported on December 8, 11:00 PM PDT, its domain had been disabled. The site is known for hosting famous indies including Buckshot Roulette, Friday Night Funkin’, and Dwarf Fortress among others.
According to the team, FunkoPop’s software, run by the self-described ‘AI Powered Anti-Counterfeit Solution’ BrandShield, falsely identified content on the site as malicious. Adding fuel to the fire, Itch.io stated its registrar, iWantMyName, ignored their response and immediately disabled the domain.
The situation escalated quickly, with Itch.io tweeting, “I kid you not, Itch.io has been taken down by FunkoPop because they use some trash ‘AI-powered’ Brand Protection Software called BrandShield.”
The platform clarified it had already removed the flagged page but the whole site was still taken down due to automated systems overriding human input. “Our registrar’s automated system likely kicked to disable the domain since no one read our confirmation of removal,” the social media account continues. This left developers and users in the lurch, scrambling to access critical resources hosted on the site.
One game developer student @imtellinggod, voiced their frustration on Twitter, writing, “I have an assignment uploaded there and that’s what i turned [in to] my professor so if it’s down they can’t give me a grade :(“
Itch.io responded swiftly, promising to deploy a new domain if the downtime exceeded eight hours. Fortunately, the outage lasted only around five hours, with the platform confirming its return by updating its social media as usual at 7:00 AM PDT.
Because of this issue, the Itch.io team is urging registrars to review their reliance on automated systems for handling disputes. It also highlights that AI systems, while efficient, can cause significant and unexpected industry-wide disruptions even outside of game development pipelines.
