YouTube Removes Popular Channels for Deceptive AI Movie Trailers
San Bruno, Friday, 19 December 2025.
YouTube terminated two channels boasting over one billion views for distributing deceptive AI-generated trailers, marking a significant crackdown on synthetic misinformation amidst rising copyright tensions.
Enforcement Actions and Policy Violations
The termination of Screen Culture and KH Studio, executed between December 17 and December 18, 2025, represents a decisive stricture against content farms exploiting generative AI [3][4]. Together, these channels had amassed a subscriber base exceeding 2 million and generated over one billion cumulative views by producing high-fidelity, yet fabricated, movie trailers [1][3]. YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., justified the removal by citing violations of its policies regarding spam and misleading metadata [1][2]. Visitors attempting to access these channels are now met with a standard unavailability message, signaling the platform’s refusal to host content that systematically deceives users about upcoming theatrical releases [1].
The Monetization of Deception
This enforcement action follows a history of regulatory cat-and-mouse games between the platform and these creators. In March 2025, YouTube suspended advertising revenue for both channels following investigations into their use of AI to mimic legitimate intellectual property [1][3]. Monetization was subsequently reinstated after the channels agreed to append disclosures such as “fan trailer,” “parody,” or “concept trailer” to their video titles [1]. However, recent months saw these critical caveats vanish from video metadata, a regression that YouTube determined was a breach of the conditional reinstatement terms [1]. Screen Culture, based in India, and the Georgia-based KH Studio effectively reverted to deceptive packaging to maximize algorithmic engagement [1][3].
Strategic Tensions: Disney, Google, and OpenAI
The crackdown on AI-generated trailers coincides with escalating legal and commercial conflicts regarding intellectual property rights in the age of generative AI. On December 10, 2025, The Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, alleging that the tech giant’s AI training models infringe on Disney’s copyrights on a “massive scale” [1][3]. Disney explicitly highlighted AI content on YouTube as a primary concern in its demand for the removal of infringing material [2]. This legal maneuvering occurs against the backdrop of a shifting alliance landscape; earlier this month, Disney announced a three-year, $1 billion partnership with OpenAI to integrate its intellectual property into Sora, OpenAI’s video generation platform [2][4].