According to the itch.io owner on bluesky, a forum was created on itch.io for discussion of Funko Fusion (a licensed Funko game that just released on the Switch, per Funko’s twitter).

Funko uses a third party (Brand Shield) for IP protection and issuing DCMA requests, as most big companies do to help shield from bad PR.

Brand Shield uses an AI based system that flagged the forum as infringing. Instead of contacting itch.io directly through proper channels for DMCA claims with the site itself, they contacted itch.io’s DNS registrar iwantmyname. These are people that connect “itch.io” to the IP address of the server, so you can get to it easily online.

iwantmyname forwarded the complaint to itch’s hosting service, who forwarded it to the owner.

The itch.io owner took down the forum/page that was flagged as soon as they recieved notice about it, as they say it’s not worth trying to fight this sort of thing when it’s just a basic DCMA flagging. They informed their hosting service, who confirmed the page was taken down and itch.io was in the clear. They also informed iwantmyname, who did not respond at all, and instead stopped pointing “itch.io” at the itch.io IP, taking the site down.

itch.io’s owner starts posting on bluesky and x about the event, and within about half a day the registrar reinstates the site.

Someone (so far unidentified but clearly associated with Funko) contacts the itch.io owner’s mother and makes some threatening comments to her about statements on her son’s social media accounts, scaring her into texting him a “please call me” type text. He screenshots this and posts it to twitter.

Funko makes an “apology” post on twitter that distinctly lacks any actual apology, shifts all the blame to the third party IP protection company, and states that the flagged page was impersonating an official development page for their game. But they’re “happy” the issue is resolved.

Funko publicly stating the page that was flagged was impersonating an official page is a pretty serious claim, especially along with the very obvious scare tactics of contacting the itch.io owner’s mother. Make no mistake, those are both big fucking threats.

• Funko (of Funko Pops) bought an AI tool to search out brand infringement
• AI files a claim against Itch.io
• Itch’s registrar decides to Leeroy Jenkins it and takes down Itch’s domain without bothering to clarify or validate