Indie gaming platform itch.io temporarily unavailable: how artificial intelligence caused the entire site to shut down

Sometimes, algorithms and AI can be ruthless and block something without understanding it. And if you use the indie game distribution platform itch.io, you won't like this news.

Here's What We Know

The itch.io website said that its platform was shut down due to a "fake phishing report". In a post on their official Twitter account, the itch.io team claims that Funko used brand protection software that they claimed was based on artificial intelligence to mislabel a disputed page and submit a false report to itch.io's domain registrar.

According to their allegations, the registrar shut down the entire site without verification, instead of making sure that the disputed page was removed. itch.io confirmed that the administration quickly removed the disputed page after receiving the notification, as they did not want to escalate the situation. However, the registrar's automated system may have been triggered and led to the domain being blocked.

The itch.io team also noted that the site's servers remain operational, but access to the site and its games will be closed until the issue is resolved. This creates serious difficulties for the creators of more than a million indie products that were sold and distributed through itch.io.

Source: @itchio