YouTube Takes Action Against Channels Making AI-Generated Fake Movie Trailers that Attract Millions of Views
YouTube Shuts Down Popular Channels Screen Culture and KH Studio
YouTube has deactivated the channels Screen Culture and KH Studio, which collectively had more than 2 million subscribers and over a billion views. The channels have been replaced with a message stating, “This page isn’t available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else.”
Both channels, based in India and Georgia, respectively, were approached for comment regarding the shutdown.
Initially, Screen Culture and KH Studio returned to monetization by incorporating terms like “fan trailer,” “parody,” and “concept trailer” into their video titles. However, these terms have disappeared in recent months, causing concern within the fan-made trailer community. YouTube asserts that the channels’ reversion to previous practices violated its spam and misleading metadata policies, leading to their termination.
Nikhil P. Chaudhari, founder of Screen Culture, noted that his team of twelve editors effectively leveraged YouTube’s algorithm by producing early fake trailers and continuously updating their videos. For example, they had created 23 different versions of a trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps by March, with some versions even surpassing the official trailer in YouTube search results. Recent projects also included trailers for HBO’s new Harry Potter series and Netflix’s Wednesday.
A recent investigation highlighted that, rather than actively protecting copyright on these videos, several Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros Discovery and Sony, had covertly requested that YouTube direct ad revenue from these AI-generated videos back to them. Studios involved declined to comment.
Disney properties were particularly prevalent on Screen Culture and KH Studio, prompting Disney to send a cease-and-desist letter to Google last week. The letter alleged that Google’s AI training models and services infringe on Disney’s copyrights on a “massive scale.”
