Itch temporarily taken down on Sunday for... reasons?

[Jubal]

So, Funko, the guys who make the weird uncanny bobble head things, literally had a half day takedown of Itch io, the site that runs half the world's tiny indie gaming stuff. It seems like someone put a fan page for an existing Funko related game and some overzealous "brand defender" software, possibly powered by AI, managed to flag it as fraud/phishing (which is not the same as copyright infringement!) and then they took down the whole site as a result?

They also released a non-apology. And they apparently phoned Itch.io's founder's mother??

Some notes at: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/12/funko-issue-a-statement-about-the-itchio-take-down-while-also-apparently-calling-itch-founders-mom/

Just a bizarre story all round.

[Rob_Haines]

Big "we didn't do anything wrong" energy coming from Funko.

[Miggo]

One might rightly ask: "What the Funko happened?"

But, yeah, that's very messy. leafo should get at least some kind of an apology or compensation.

[Jubal]

One might rightly ask: "What the Funko happened?"

*pun appreciation applause*

And yeah, it's bizarre that this is even possible with a site as big as Itch: the phoning his mum bit still sticks out as especially weird. And kind of worrying if AI-powered systems are going to start randomly demanding takedowns of websites based on arbitrary criteria...