The temporary takedown of indie gaming site itch.io by Funko Pop proves that AI automation is inherently flawed.

Itch.io says an AI-powered "brand protection software" sent takedown notices to its domain registrar and hosting providers.

Itch.io was offline for a few hours, and it was all due to Funko and an AI tool it uses to generate claims, Itch.io claims.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox

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,

Itch.io, a website used to host a heap of games—primarily self-published indie projects—was taken down briefly this morning (or over the weekend, depending on time zones) thanks to, uh, Funko of Funko Pop infamy.

Indie game store Itch.io is currently offline – and claims that is the fault of the company behind Funko Pops. After a "bogus phishing report" Indie game store Itch.io is currently offline. Even though the servers are still online,

Indie game platform itch.io has been taken offline after Funko allegedly logged a "bogus phishing report" to the website's registrar. In a brief message posted this morning to Bluesky, the itch.io team said that Funko used "trash" AI-powered brand protection system Brand Shield and despite responding to challenge the phishing report,

Gamers looking to browse through the wonderful indie selection at itch.io are currently being met with a connection error, as the domain has been taken down entirely – and not by accident, if the claims made by the marketplace’s social media accounts are true.