YouTube terminates AI-generated fake movie trailer channels after policy breaches

The platform shut down two channels which together amassed more than two million subscribers and one billion views

YouTube has terminated two high-profile channels that used artificial intelligence to create fake movie trailers that attracted millions of viewers, following breaches of the platform’s spam and misleading metadata policies.

The Google-owned video platform has shut down Screen Culture and KH Studio, which together amassed more than two million subscribers and generated over one billion views.

Visitors to the channels now see a notice stating, “This page isn’t available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else.” Screen Culture is based in India, while KH Studio operates out of Georgia.

Earlier this year, YouTube suspended advertising on both channels after an investigation revealed the growing prevalence of AI-generated trailers that closely resembled official studio releases.

The channels later regained monetisation by labelling their videos as “fan trailer,” “parody,” or “concept trailer.” In recent months, however, those disclaimers were removed, raising renewed concerns within the fan trailer community.

YouTube said the decision to terminate the channels followed their return to practices that violated platform rules.

The investigation found that Screen Culture frequently combined official studio footage with AI-generated imagery to create trailers that misled viewers into believing they were authentic.

Founder Nikhil P. Chaudhari previously said his team exploited YouTube’s algorithm by releasing multiple iterations of trailers quickly. By March, the channel had uploaded 23 versions of a trailer for Fantastic Four: First Steps, some of which ranked above the official studio release in search results.

The report also revealed that several Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros Discovery and Sony, had quietly requested that advertising revenue from such videos be redirected to them rather than pursuing copyright takedowns. The studios declined to comment.

Disney properties featured heavily on both channels. Last week, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, alleging that its AI training models and services infringe its copyrights on a “massive scale.”