Game distribution site 'itch.io' goes down due to false phishing reports by AI, official comment: 'Garbage-like AI-equipped software'



itch.io is a popular game distribution platform, especially among the indie game community, due to the freedom it offers to users who purchase works to choose the amount they want to pay and to creators who can flexibly set their prices. However, it was discovered that itch.io was falsely accused of being a phishing scam site by a service that uses AI to report a large number of cases, and the site was temporarily inaccessible.

Bogus Complaint Disables Itch.io, Google Ignored Same Sender For Years * TorrentFreak

https://torrentfreak.com/bogus-complaint-disables-itch-io-google-ignored-same-sender-for-years-241209/

Itch.io went offline due to a 'trash AI-powered' phishing report - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/9/24316882/itch-io-offline-domain-registration-funko-report

According to itch.io, the site went down because Funko, a toy manufacturer known for holding a large number of licenses, reported itch.io as a 'phishing scam site' using a product that tracks copyright infringement using AI.

On December 9, 2024, itch.io's official X (formerly Twitter) account posted, 'No joke, itch.io was taken down by Funko because they used some crappy 'AI-powered' brand protection software called BrandShield to create a fake phishing report to our registrar, IWantMyName. The registrar ignored our response and disabled the domain.'



Leafo , the owner of itch.io, explained the details further on the social news site Hacker News:

According to Leafo, the problem started with a fan site for the game ' Funko Fusion ,' which is based on Funko's toy brand 'Funko Pop!.' Someone created this fan site, which contained screenshots of the game and a link to the official website, and Leafo speculates that BrandShield, having detected this, created an automatic report.

In cases like this, a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request would typically be filed, but BrandShield instead reported itch.io for what is more serious 'scams and phishing.'

Leafo confirmed that Linode, the host of itch.io, and IWantMyName, the domain registrar, had forwarded the report to them five or six days before the problem occurred. In response, itch.io removed the problematic pages, and Linode closed the case after seeing it, but IWantMyName ignored itch.io's response and deleted the site.



Leafo blamed BrandShield for trying to escalate the issue by filing a phishing complaint rather than a DMCA request. 'I honestly believe they are the bad actors in this,' he wrote in a Hacker News post.

Meanwhile, BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren said in a statement to the media, 'We identified and reported the infringement and requested the removal of the URL in question, not the entire itch.io domain. The temporary removal of the website was the decision of the service provider, not BrandShield.' He claimed that the site's downtime was the result of the provider's decision, not BrandShield's.

TorrentFreak, a news blog that covered this incident, suggested that IWantMyName may have been at fault for ignoring itch.io's response, but concluded that 'in any event, it appears that an imprecise tool triggered an imprecise removal mechanism, leading to disproportionate results.'

itch.io reported that the site was back up and running on December 10, 2024.



According to Google's transparency report , BrandShield has filed numerous requests to remove the content, but Google has ignored most of them.

TorrentFreak noted, 'The jury is still out on whether the site's removal was justified, but because BrandShield attempted to use Google's copyright-based removal mechanism to address the alleged trademark infringement, Google appears to have refused to act in most cases. This is convenient, but makes it impossible to submit a valid DMCA takedown request for alleged trademark infringement.'

In addition, itch.io revealed that on December 10, 2024, the operator's mother received a call from Funko.



Funko also released a statement on X, saying, 'Funko has a deep respect and appreciation for indie games, gamers, and developers. We are fans of indie games and love the creativity and passion that defines the indie game community. Recently, one of our brand protection partners identified a page on itch.io that imitated a Funko Fusion development website, and a takedown request was made to address that specific page. However, Funko did not request the removal of the itch.io platform, and we are pleased that the itch.io site had been restored by this morning. We have reached out to itch.io and engaged with them on this issue.'

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