itch.io reports that it was removed by Funko

On Sunday evening, itch.io went offline for several hours, with the indie game market blaming an automatic deletion created on behalf of Funko, the maker of Funko Pop collectible figurines.

“I’m not kidding, @itchio was deleted by @OriginalFunko,” the X site wrote early Monday morning. itch.io said Funko uses “some crappy AI-powered brand protection software” that created a “bogus phishing report” about the itch.io site.

This report was sent to itch.io domain registrar iwantmyname, who took the site offline. This action was also likely taken by an “automated system,” itch.io reported.

itch.io said it removed the “disputed page” that immediately triggered a phishing report after receiving a takedown notice, but noted that no one at iwantmyname appeared to have read the email confirming the page’s removal.

In response to Polygon’s comment, a spokesperson for iwantmyname said, “The domain name has already been restored this morning after the registrant finally responded to our notification and took appropriate action to resolve the issue.” At the time of iwantmyname’s response, it seemed that itch.io had been online again 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 using the open platform . Games and other products already purchased from itch.io will be able to be used without problems, but the store’s failure will be a major problem for creators using it for distribution.

The software allegedly used by Funko that took down itch.io was created by BrandShield. BrandShield describes itself as an “online AI-powered anti-counterfeiting solution” that monitors “trademark violations, phishing attempts, brand abuse and counterfeiting activity.”

Polygon asked itch.io and Funko for comment.