Popular indie game platform itch.io says its domain was briefly taken down for a few hours Monday morning thanks to an "AI-driven" phishing report spurred by the company behind Funko Pop figures.

Itch.io says an AI-powered "brand protection software" sent phishing reports notices to its domain registrar and hosting providers, causing its domain to be disabled.

Indie game storefront Itch.io is currently offline because of what it describes as a bogus phishing report. While the game store’s servers are still online, the domain for the website is currently pointing towards IP addresses that itch.

Itch.io says Funko used AI software that falsely flagged it for phishing. The site was down for hours before it was restored.

The itch.io website was recently shut down, blaming Funko for flagging a disputed page under an alleged phishing report.

Indie game distribution site Itch.io has been offline today, and it has a truly bizarre reason as to why.

Itch.io was taken offline for several hours earlier today following what the site's owner calls a "bogus" phishing claim by Funko and BrandShield.

itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran claimed that toy company Funko was using “some trash ‘AI Powered’ Brand Protection Software called BrandShield”, which he says flagged a disputed page and filed a “bogus” report with itch.io’s domain registrar, which then ignored Corcoran’s response and disabled the domain.

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

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.

Rarely does a cautionary tale against using software automation in every step of the way come as clearly as the unfortunate itch.io saga that unraveled today. The owners of indie game marketplace itch.