The software allegedly used by Funko that took the itch.io site down is made by a company called BrandShield. BrandShield describes itself as an “AI-powered online anti-counterfeiting solution” that monitors for “trademark infringements, phishing attempts, brand abuse, and counterfeit activity.”
Recently, one of our brand protection partners identified a page on itch.io imitating the Funko Fusion development website. A takedown request was issued to address this specific page. Funko did not request a takedown of the itch.io platform, and we’re happy the site was back up by this morning.
So a takedown request will not take an entire domain offline, and while Funko may not have REQUESTED it, it appears that BrandShield may have reported the entire domain as a phishing attempt. We already know BrandShield is sketchy at best in how they handle brand protection, but they may have crossed a legal line here in my personal opinion if the accusations are correct.
Funko was worried about the large amount of bad press offlining a huge site which is visited frequently by a lot of people generated, and found a way to fit both feet in their mouth. They first posted to Twitter that Funko was a big supporter of indie games and that “Funko did not request a takedown of the @itchio platform“. This is false on two accounts, the first being that there was definitely a takedown request sent and secondly a takedown request would not offline an entire site, only a fraud and phishing notification would,
… and that is when Funko texted Leaf Corcoran’s mother.
