Rarely does a cautionary tale against using software automation in every step of the way come as clearly as the unfortunateitch.iosaga that unraveled today.
The owners ofindie game marketplace itch.ioclosed their Sunday evening by findingtheir site had been taken offline, contradicting Garfield’s belief that only Mondays have cursed properties beyond modern science’s understanding.
According to an itch.io post on social media, its site went down over a phishing report on behalf of Funko, makers ofquestionably priced collectibleswithquestionable artistic input.
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The chain of events that led to it began with a report by BrandShield, a self-professedAI-driven platformthat “detects potential threats and provides analysis” to companies.
BrandShield submitted a phishing report on behalf of Funko to domain registration platform iwantmyname, which hosts itch.io.
According to a comment by the BrandShield page, it requested the takedown of a specific URL it considered “an abuse of Funko”, without clarifying what it was.
On its initial social media announcement,itch.io mentioned that it immediately took down the disputed page as soon as it was notified, but theAI company protectionservice did not withdraw its request with the provider.
Whereas the BrandShield report requested a specific URL to be removed, iwantmyname deployed the nuclear option, taking the entire itch.io domain offline.
The owners of itch.io spent the rest of the evening trying to rectify the situation, but it took a full day for the indie game marketplace to be tentatively back online.
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There has been no official announcement from itch.io confirming the issue is resolved, and the platform recommends users comfortable with messing with the hosts file to access the site via IP address 45.33.107.166 until things normalize.
In an earlier social media post,itch.io said it would consider setting up a new domain if the situation was not properly resolvedby this time.
This chaotic chain of events sets up a concerning precedent for small businesses trying to maintain their online presence in an industry where the big names can play judge, jury, and executioner.
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A service contracted by Funko, a collectibles company that has nothing to do with indie gaming (lukewarmFunko Fusiontitle notwithstanding), used automated services to submit an unspecified phishing report despite later calling it just “an abuse of Funko”.
Without validating the report or communicating it to the domain owner, iwantmyname instead automatically shut down the entire site, despite itch.io having already removed the supposedly offending URL.
It would not be shocking if many gamers start thinking whether that $10 they would put towards a generic vinyl doll wouldn’t be better spent on an indie titlethat was made with love, talent, and without killing domains through irresponsible automation.
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